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ANCIENT TIMES "^

A HISTORY OF THE
EARLY WORLD

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF

ANCIENT HISTORY AND THE

CAREER OF EARLY MAN

BY
JAMES HENRY BREASTED, Ph.D., LL.D.

PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL HISTORY AND EGYPTOLOGY; CHAIRMAN

OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES

IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

GINN AND COMPANY

BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON
ATLANTA • DALLAS • COLUMBUS • SAN FRANCISCO

^X" COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY JAMES HENRY BREASTED

JiNTEREI) AT STATIONERS' HALL

OUTLINES OF EUROPEAN' HISTORY, PART I

AND JAMES HENRY BREASTED

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL

320-3

377

GINN AND COMPANY • PRO-
PRIETORS • BOSTON -U.S.A.

|f«U<"

PREFACE

In the selection of subject matter as well as in style and
diction, it has been the purpose of the author to make this
book sufficiently simple to be put into the hands of first-year
high-school pupils. A great deal of labor has been devoted
to the mere task of clear and simple statement and arrange-
ment. While simple enough for first-year high-school work, "it
nevertheless is planned to interest and stimulate all students
of high-school age. In dealing with each civilization a suffi-
cient framework of political organization and of historical
events has been laid down ; but the bulk of the space has been
deiwted to the life of man in all its manifestations — society,
industry, commerce, religion, art, literature. These things are
so presented as to make it clear how one age grows out of
another, and how each civilization profits by that which has
preceded it.

The story of each great race or nation is thus clearly disen-
gaged and presented in period after period ; but, nevertheless,
the book purposes to present the career of man as a whole, in
a connected story of expanding life and civilization from the
days of the rudest stone hatchet to the Christian cathedrals of
Europe, without a serious gap. A symmetrical presentation
of the career of man requires adequate space for the origins of
civilization and the history of the Orient, as these two subjects
have been revealed by the excavations and discoveries of the
last two generations, especially the last twenty-five years. The
reasons for devoting more than the customary space to these
subjects in this book may therefore be briefly noted.

The length of the career of man discernible by us has been
enormously increased at the present day by archaeological

iv Ancient Times

discovery, carrying back the development of human arts at
least fifty, and perhaps two hundred thousand, years. Even as
recorded in written documents, modern discovery in the Orient
has placed behind the period of human history as formerly
known to us another period equally long, thus doubling the
length of the historic age. It cannot be said that all this vast
new outlook has as yet been surveyed and briefly presented in
a form intelligible to younger students as an imposing pano-
rama of the expanding human career. The attainment of such
a point of view of the career of man has been a slow process.
The ancient history written by Sulpicius Severus, about 400 a.d.,
survived for over a thousand years, and became a respected text-
book, which was in use as late as the sixteenth century. It
dealt almost exclusively with the history of Rome. A mention
of the battle of Marathon was its only reference to Greek history.
The Roman colossus bulked so large that nothing earlier could
be seen behind it. , ,» a a\ -v v v v

Within the last few years, however, the marvelous genius
of the Greeks has finally found full recognition in our histori-
cal textbooks. There is another similar step yet to be taken,
and that is to discern behind Greece and Rome an additional
great and important chapter of the human story and to give it
adequate and interesting presentation to young readers. Prob-
ably no one outside the arcanum of the traditional classicists
would question the assertion that Conquests which we owe to
the Orient, like the discovery of metal and the invention of
alphabetic writing, were achievements of far greater impor-
tance than the details of the Peloponnesian Wars, whether
estimated by their consequences to the human race or by their
value as information in the mind of the modern high-school
pupil. Whether such achievements are regarded as falling
within the historic epoch or not is a matter of small moment.
They belong to the human career^ and as such they should find
their place in the picture of that career which is presented to
the younger generation.

Preface v

The intelligent person of to-day desires to be so familiar with
such facts as these in the rise of civilization as to possess some
moderate acquaintance with the early chapters in the human
career. Civilization arose in the Orient, and early Europe ob-
tained it there. But the languages of the early Orient perished,
and the ability to read them was lost many centuries ago. On
the other hand, the languages of Greece and Rome were never
lost, like those of the ancient Orient. In modern educational
history Greek and Latin have not been suddenly recovered,
and we have not had to grow accustomed to their abrupt intro-
duction into science and education. The sudden and dramatic
recovery of the earlier chapters of the human career, lying
behind Greece and Rome, has created a situation to which our
histories of the ancient world, as they are found in our public
schools, have not yet adjusted themselves. The habit of regard-
ing ancient history as beginning with Greece has become so
fixed that it is not easily to be changed. Furthermore, the
monuments and documents left us by the ancient Orient are
far larger in extent than those which we have inherited from
Greece and Rome together, and their enormous volume, to-
gether with their difficult systems of writing, have made it very
laborious to recover and arrange the history of the Orient in
form and language suitable for the high-school pupil.

In 1884 Eduard Meyer, the leading ancient historian of this
generation, in his History of Antiquity devoted six hundred
and nineteen pages to the Orient. In the third edition, still
unfinished, which began to appear in 1913, the portion of
the Orient thus far issued (less than half) occupies eleven
hundred and fifty pages. The remainder, still unpublished,
will easily bring the treatment of the Orient up to twenty-
four or twenty-five hundred pages, that is, about four times its
former bulk. A textbook which devotes a brief fifty- or sixty-
page introduction to the Orient and begins " real history " with
the Greeks is not proportioned in accordance with modem
knowledge of the ancient world.

vi Ancient Times

Furthermore, the value of the early oriental monuments as
teaching material has as yet hardly been discerned. The highly
graphic pictorial monuments and records of the East, when
accompanied by proper explanations, may be made to convey
to the young student the meaning and- character of a contem-
porary historical source more vividly than any body of ancient
records surviving elsewhere. When adequately explained, such
records also serve to dispel that sense of complete unreality
which besets the young person in studying the career of ancient
man. These materials have not been employed in our schools,
because they have not been available to the teacher in the
current textbooks.

Finally, when we recall that the leading religion of the world —
the one which still dominates Western civilization to-day — came
to us out of the Orient ; when we further remember that before
it fell the Roman Empire was completely orientalized, it would
appear to be only fair to our schools to give them books furnish-
ing an adequate treatment of pre-Greek civilization. This does
not mean to question for a moment the undeniable supremacy
of Greek culture, or to give it any less space than before. The
author believes that no one who reads the chapters on Greece
in this survey will gain the impression that Hellas has been sac-
rificed to Moloch — in other words, to her oriental predecessors.

The author is* convinced that the surviving monuments of
the entire ancient world can be so visualized as to render ancient
history a very real story even to young students, and that these
monuments may be made to tell their own story with great
vividness. This method he has already introduced into the
ancient-history chapters of Outlines of European History^ Part Tj
where it has demonstrated its availability. The same method
has been employed in illustrating this ancient history. The
result has been a book somewhat larger than the current text-
books on ancient history ; but the excess is due to the series of
illustrations. The book actually contains a text of about five
hundred pages, with a " picture book " of about two hundred

Preface vii

and fifteen pages. Teachers will do well to make the illustra-
tions and accompanying descriptive matter part of each lesson.
The references in the text to the illustrations, and the refer-
ences to the text in the descriptive matter under the illustrations,
if noted and used, will be found to merge text and illustrations
into a unified whole. It should be noted that all references to the
text are by paragraph (§) except a few references by " Section."

An elaborate system of maps has been arranged by the
author for the purpose of bringing the successive epochs of
history before the pupil in terms of geography. The under-
lying principle is the arrangement on the same plate of from
two to four maps representing successive historical epochs.
It is believed that these composite maps, called by the author
sequence maps, will prove a powerful aid to the teacher.

The author has not found it an easy task to turn from
twenty-five years of research in a laboratory of ancient history,
extending from a university post in America to the frontiers
of the oriental lands, and endeavor to summarize for youthful
readers the facts now discernible in the career of ancient
man. Under these circumstances the experience of my friend
Professor James Harvey Robinson, who has done so much for
the study of history in the schools of America, has been
invaluable. The book owes a great deal to the inspiration of
his unflagging interest and the helpfulness of his long experi-
ence in the art of simplification. It may be mentioned here
that Professor Robinson's Medieval arid Modern Times forms
the continuation of this volume on ancient history. To my
colleague Professor C. F. Huth also I am indebted for careful
reading of the proofs, accompanied by unfailingly valuable
counsel. To him, furthermore, I owe the excellent bibliography
of Greece and Rome at the end of the volume. Mr. Robert I.
Adriance, head of the history department of the East Orange
high schools, has kindly read all the proofs. His discerning
criticisms and wide knowledge have proved very valuable to the
book, and his unfailing interest has been a great encouragement.

viii Ancient Times

It will be noticed that some of the author's treatment of the
ancient world in Outlines of European History, Fart /, has
been retained here. These portions had already been looked
over by Mr. A. F. Barnard of the University High School
of Chicago, and he has also very kindly read the proofs of the
remainder of the volume. The chapters on the Babylonians
and Assyrians have been read by Professor D. D. Luckenbill, and
that on the Hebrews by Professor J. M. Powis Smith, and to their
kindness I am indebted for several suggestions. The sections
oh early Christianity and the Church have likewise been looked
over by my colleague Professor S. J. Case. To all these friends
and colleagues the author would here express his sincere thanks.

It has been very gratifying to the author to be able to
include in a book of this character the six charming etchings
made expressly for the volume by Mr. George T. Plowman.
To Mrs. William T. Brewster he is also indebted for the
beautiful water color of the Plain of Argos (Plate III). Besides
photographs furnished by the Egyptian Expedition of The Uni-
versity of Chicago, many illustrations have been contributed
by foreign scholars, to whom the author would here express
his thanks, especially to Bissing (Munich), Borchardt (Cairo),
Dechelette now alas! a sacrifice of the great war (Roanne),
Dorpfeld (Athens and Berlin), Hoemes (Vienna), Koldewey
(Babylon), Montelius (Stockholm), Schaefer (Berlin), Schubart
(Berlin), Steindorff (Leipzig), and some others, who have kindly
furnished photographs and sketches. The author is also espe-
cially indebted to Messrs. Underwood & Underwood for per-
mission to use their unrivaled series of Egyptian, oriental, and
Mediterranean photographs as the basis for a number of
sketches: Figs. 23, 122, 128, 153, 159, 163, 171, 174, 175,
176, 177, 173, 179, 189, 190, 203, 221, 260. No'more vivid
impressions of the places and scenes where the men of the
early world lived and wrought can be obtained than by the use
of these photographs in stereoscopic form. Teachers who make
the Underwood stereographs a part of their equipment will

Preface ix

find that their teaching gains enormously in effectiveness. The
author desires to thank also Mr. E. K. Robinson of Ginn and
Company, without whose experienced assistance and unfailing
patience it would have been impossible to complete the unusual
and elaborate illustrative scheme of this book. To the pub-
lishers, who have unhesitatingly supported this expensive and
laborious illustrative equipment and to the remarkably skillful
and efficient proofreaders and printers who have solved the
numerous and extraordinary typographical difficulties involved
in so large an illustrative scheme, the author would also offer
his hearty thanks.

JAMES HENRY BREASTED

CONTENTS

PART I. THE EARLIEST EUROPEANS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Early Mankind in Europe

1. Earliest Man's Ignorance and Progress i

2. The Early Stone Age S

3. The Middle Stone Age 9

4. The Late Stone Age 14

PART II. THE ORIENT

II. The Story of Egypt: the Earliest Nile-Dwellers
AND THE Pyramid Age

5. Egypt and its Earliest Inhabitants 35

6. The Pyramid Age (about 3000 to 2500 R.c.) 49

7. Art and Architecture in the Pyramid Age 68

III. The Story of Egypt: the Feudal Age and the Empire

8. The Nile Voyage and the Feudal Age 74

9. The Founding of the Empire 80

10. The Higher Life of the Empire 86

11. The Decline and Fall of the ICgyptian Empire .... 93

12. The Decipherment of Egyptian Writing by Champollion 97

IV. Western Asia : Babylonia

13. The Lands and Races of Western Asia 100

14. Rise of Sumerian Civilization and Pearly Struggle of

Sumerian and Semite 107

15. The P'irst Semitic Triumph : the Age of Sargon . . . 122

16. Union of Sumerians and Semites: the Kings of vSumer

and Akkad 126

17. The Second Semitic Triumph: the Age of Plammurapi

and After 128

V. The Assyrians and Chaldeans

18. Early Assyria and her Rivals 140

19. The Assyrian Empire (about 750 to 606 B.C.) 151

20. The Chaldean Empire : the Last Semitic Empire . . . 164,

xii Ancient Times

CHAPTER • PAGE

VI. The Medo-Persian Empire

21. The Indo-European Peoples and their Dispersion . . 171

22. The Aryan Peoples and the Iranian Prophet Zoroaster 1 76

23. Rise of the Persian Empire : Cyrus 179

24. The Civilization of the Persian Empire (about 530

to 330 B.C.) 182

2 5. Persian Documents and the Decipherment of Cuneiform 1 89

26. The Results of Persian Rule and its Religious Influence 194

VII. The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient

27. Palestine and the Predecessors of the Hebrews there 197

28. The Settlement of the Hebrews in Palestine and the

United Hebrew Kingdom 200

29. The Two Hebrew Kingdoms 206

30. The Destruction of the Hebrew Kingdoms by Assyria

and Chaldea 210

31. The Hebrews in Exile and their Deliverance by the

Persians . 213

32. Decline of Oriental Leadership ; Estimate of Oriental

Civilization .'"."J l'"."^ 'V ": "J'' :'': 'V'-.^'r . . 217

PART III. THE GREEKS

VIII. The Dawn of European Civilization and the Rise
OF THE Eastern Mediterranean World

33. The Dawn of Civilization in Europe 221

34. The ^gean World : the Islands . . . '. .'. / . . 225

35. The ^gean World: the Mainland . . . .... . . 236

36. Modern Discovery in the Northern Mediterranean and

the Rise of an Eastern Mediterranean World . . . 244

IX. The Greek Conquest of the ^gean World

37. The Coming of the Greeks 252

38. The Nomad Greeks make the Transition to the Settled

• >' . Life . . . .- . .- •• . .- .• .- .i'»4'*'l'>.^' . ... 259

X.' Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings

39. The ^gean Inheritance and the Spread of Phoenician

Commerce 263

40. The Phoenicians bring the First Alphabet to Europe 270

41. Greek Warriors and the Hero Songs 273

42. The Beginnings and Early Development of Greek

Religion 276

Contents xiii

CHAPTER PAGE

XI. The Age of the Nobles and Greek Expansion in
THE Mediterranean

43. The Disappearance of the Kings and the Leadership

of the Nobles 282

44. Greek Expansion in the Age of the Nobles .... 287

45. Greek Civilization in the Age of the Nobles .... 290

XII. The Industrial Revolution and the Age of the
Tyrants

46. The Industrial and Commercial Revolution .... 295

47. Rise of the Democracy and the Age of the Tyrants . 301

48. Civilization of the Age of the Tyrants 307

XIII. The Repulse of Persia

49. The Coming of the Persians ..... .... 322

50. The Greek Repulse of Persians and Phoenicians . .328

XIV. The Growing Rivalry between Athens and Sparta,

AND the Rise of the Athenian Empire

51. The Beginnings of the Rivalry between Athens and

Sparta 336

52. The Rise of the Athenian Empire and the Triumph

of Democracy 339

53. Commercial Development and the Opening of the

Struggle between Athens and Sparta 344

XV. Athens in the Age of Pericles

54. Society, the Home, Education and Training of Young

Citizens 350

55. Higher Education, Science, and the Training (gained

by State Service 357

56. Art and Literature 362

XVI. The Struggle between Athens and Sparta and
the Fall of the Athenian Empire

57. The Tyranny of Athens and the Second Peloponne-

sian War 378

58. Third Peloponnesian War and Destruction of the

Athenian Empire . . . fj.jjioW 3^5

XVII. The Final Conflicts among the (5reek States

59. Spartan Leadership and the Decline of Democracy . 394

60. The Fall of Sparta and the Leadership of Thebes . 402

xiv Ancient Times

CHAPTER PAGE

XVIII. The Higher Life of the Greeks from the Death
OF Pericles to the Fall of the Greek States
6i. Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting ...... 406

62. Religion, Literature, and Thought 413

XIX. Alexander the Great

63. The Rise of Macedonia 425

64. Campaigns of Alexander the Great 429

65. International Policy of Alexander: its Personal Con-

sequences 438

PART IV. THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN THE
HELLENISTIC AGE AND THE ROMAN REPUBLIC

XX. The Heirs of Alexander

66. The Heirs of Alexander's Empire 445

67. The Decline of Greece 450

XXI. The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age

68. Cities, Architecture, and Art 453

69. Inventions and Science ; Libraries and Literature . 466

70. Education, Philosophy, and Religion 475

71. Formation of a Hellenistic World of Hellenic-Oriental

Civilization; Decline of Citizenship and the City-State 481

XXII. The Western Mediterranean World and the
Roman Conquest of Italy

72. The Western Mediterranean World 484

73. Earliest Rome 492

74. The Early Republic : its Progress and Government . 499

75. The Expansion of the Roman Republic and the Con-

quest of Italy 511

XXIII. The Supremacy of the Roman Republic in Italy

and the Rivalry with Carthage

76. Italy under the Early Roman Republic 520

77. Rome and Carthage as Commercial Rivals .... 524

XXIV. The Roman Conquest of the Western Mediter-

ranean World

78. The Struggle with Carthage: the Sicilian War, or

First Punic War 533

79. The Hannibalic War (Second Punic War) and the

Destruction of Carthage 535

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

XXV. World Dominion and Degeneracy

80. The Roman Conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean

World 549

81. Roman Government and Civilization in the Age of

Conquest 553

82. Degeneration in City and Country 563

XXVI. A Century of Revolution and the End of the
Republic

83. The Land Situation and the Beginning of the

Struggle between Senate and People 574

84. The Rise of One-Man Power: Marius and Sulla . 578

85. The Overthrow of the Republic : Pompey and

Caesar 584

86. The Triumph of Augustus and the End of the

Civil War 596

PART V. THE ROMAN EMPIRE

XXVII. The First of Two Centuries of Peace: the Age
OF Augustus and the Successors of his Line

87. The Rule of Augustus and the Beginning of Two

Centuries of Peace (30 B.C.-14A.D.) 601

88. The Civilization of the Augustan Age 607

89. The Line of Augustus and the End of the First

Century of Peace (14 A. D.-68 A.D.) 617

XXVIII. The Second Century of Peace and the Civiliza-
tion OF THE Early Roman Empire

90. The Emperors of the Second Century of Peace (be-

ginning 69 A.D.) 625

91. The Civilization of the Early Roman Empire: the

Provinces 636

92. The Civilization of the Early Roman Empire : Rome 649

93. Popularity of Oriental Religions and the Spread of

Early Christianity 659

94. The End of the Second Century of Peace .... 664

XXIX. A Century of Revolution and the Division of
THE Empire

95. Internal Decline of the Roman Empire .... 667

96. A Century of Revolution 673

xvi Ancient Times

CHAPTER PAGE

97. The Roman Empire an Oriental Despotism .... 677

98. The Division of the Empire and the Triumph of

Christianity 682

XXX. The Triumph of the Barbarians and the End of
THE Ancient World

99. The Barbarian Invasions and the Fall of the Western

Empire 688

100. The Triumph of the Roman Church and its Power

over the Western Nations 698

♦ loi. The Final Revival of the Orient and the Forerunners

of the Nations of Modern Europe .' . ' i .' . . . 705

102. Retrospect . 1 .' 1 ; . . . 713

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...':''.-...*.■ J:,""."'. .-'I .... 717

INDEX . . 733

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LIST OF COLORED PLATES

PLATE PAGB

I. Restoration of an Egyptian Vase of the

Pyramid Age. (After Borchardt) . Frontispiece

II. Glazed Brick Lion from the Wall of Nebu-
chadnezzar's Palace. (After Koldewey) . 164

III. The Plain of Argos and the Sea viewed

FROM the Castle of Tiryns 276

IV. A Corner of the Parthenon 380

V. The Temples and Palms of Phil^e .... 444

VI. Greeks and Persians hunting Lions with

Alexander the Great 468

VII. The Greek Theater at Taormina, with its

Roman Additions 560

VIII. One of the Oldest Surviving Portrait

Paintings 654

xvii

LIST OF MAPS

PAGES

Map of Europe in the Ice Age 8

Egypt and the Nile Valley to the Second Cataract 36-37

Egyptian Thebes 81

The Ancient Oriental World and Neighboring Europe before the

Rise of the Greeks loo-ioi

Map of Sumer and Akkad, later called Babylonia 106

Map of Nineveh 1 54

Map of Babylon in the Chaldean Age 165

Sequence Map showing Expansion of the Oriental Empires for a

Thousand Years (from about 1500 to 500 h.c.) 188-189

I. Egyptian Empire (Fifteenth Century B.C.)
II. Assyrian Empire (Seventh Century B.C.)

III. Median and Chaldean Empires (Sixth Century B.C.)

IV. Persian Empire (500 B.C.)

Palestine the Land of the Hebrews 196-197

Sequence Map of the Eastern Mediterranean World from the
Grand Age of Cretan Civilization (about 1500 k.c.) to the Con-
quest of the Aegean by the Greeks 252-253

I. Pre-Greek Civilization in the Eastern Mediterranean World till
1500 B.C.
II. The Eastern Mediterranean and the Greek Conquest of the /Egean
World (1500-1000 B.C.) and the Spread of Phoenician Commerce
after 1200 B.C.

Greece in the Fifth Century H.c 264-265

Colonial Expansion of the Greeks and Phoenicians down to the

Sixth Century i?.c 288-289

Map of the World by Hecataeus (517 H.c.) 319

Sequence Map showing Western Limits of the Persian Empire
and the Greek States from the Persian Wars (beginning
490 B.C.) to the Beginning of the Second Peloponnesian War
(431 B-C.) 344-345

I. Western Limits of the Persian Empire and the Greek States in the
Persian Wars (490-479 B.C.)
II. The Athenian Empire and the Greek States at the Opening of the
Second Peloponnesian War (431 b.c.)
xviii

List of Maps xix

PAGES

Central Greece and Athens 352-353

I. Attica and Neighboring States
II. Athens

Map of the World according to Herodotus 360

Plan of the Siege of Syracuse 386

rian of the Battle of Leuctra (371 B.C.) 403

Empire of Alexander the Great 436-437

Sequence Map showing the Three Empires of Alexander's Suc-
cessors from the Third Century n.c. to their Decline at the
Coming of the Romans after 200 n. c. 448-449

I. The Three Empires of Alexander's Successors in the Third Cen-
tury B.C.
II. The Three Empires of Alexander's Successors Early in the Second
Century B.C.

Map of the World according to Eratosthenes (200 h.c.) .... 472
Italy and Adjacent Lands before the Supremacy of Rome . 484-485
Sketch Map showing Four Rival Peoples of the Western Medi-
terranean : Etruscans, Italic Tribes, Greeks, and Carthaginians 489

Early Latium 493

Map of Early Rome showing the Successive Stages of its Growth 500

Four Sketch Maps showing Expansion of Roman Power in Italy 516

I. Italy at the Beginning of the Roman Republic (about 500 B.C.)

II. Roman Power during the Samnite Wars (down to 300 B.C.)

III. Roman Power after the Samnite Wars (290 B.C.)

IV. Roman Power after the War with Pyrrhus (275 B.C.)

The Route and Marches of Hannibal, from 218 to 203 i?.r. . . . 538

Plan of the Battle of Cannae

540

Sequence Map showing the Expansion of the Roman Power from
the Beginning of the Wars with Carthage (264 i;. c.) to the Death
of Caesar (44 B. c.) 552-553

I. Roman Power at the Beginning of the Wars with Carthage
(264 B.C.)
II. Expansion of Roman Power between the Sicilian and Hannibalian
Wars with Carthage (241-218 B.C.)

III. Expansion of Roman Power from the End of the Hannibalian Wars

to the Beginning of the Revolution (201-133 b.c.)

IV. Expansion of Roman Power from the Beginning of the Revolu-

tion to the Death of Caesar (133-44 b.c.)

Plan of the Battle of Pharsalus 593

Map of Rome under the Emperors 622

XX Ancient Times

PAGES

Sequence Map showing Territorial Gains and Losses of the
Roman Empire from the Death of Caesar (44 B.C.) to the Death
of Diocletian (305 a. d.) 636-637

I. Expansion of the Roman Empire from the Death of Caesar to the
End of the Two Centuries of Peace (44 B.C.-167 a.d.)
II. The Roman Empire under Diocletian (284-305 a.d.) showing the
Four Prefectures

Map of the World by the Astronomer and Geographer Ptolemy

(Second Century A.D.) 657

The Roman Empire as organized by Diocletian and Constan-

tine 676-677

Migrations of the Germans 692-693

Europe in the Time of Charlemagne 700-701

Mohammedan Conquests at their Greatest Extent 709

ANCIENT TIMES

PART I. THE EARLIEST EUROPEANS

CHAPTER I

EARLY MANKIND IN EUROPE

Section i. Earliest Man's Ignorance and Progress

We all know that our fathers and mothers never saw an i. Man's
aeroplane when they were children, and very few of them had ventkm a
ever seen an automobile. Their fathers lived during most of acqmrem

^ of the po

their lives without electric lights or telephones in their houses, sions of l
Their grandfathers, our great-grandfathers, were obliged to
make all long journeys in stagecoaches drawn by horses, and
some of them died without ever having seen a locomotive.
One after another, as they have been invented, such things
have come and continue to come into the lives of men.

Each device grew out of earlier inventions, and each would 2. Anciei
have been impossible without the inventions which came in story^f^

before it. Thus, if we went back far enough, we would reach a

similar
achievem

point where no one could build a stagecoach or a wagon, because followed

1 1 . 1 , , 1 ., , 1 -r- ,. national

no one had mvented a wheel or tamed a wild horse. Earlier rivalries
still there were no ships and no travel or commerce by sea.
There were no metal tools, for no one had ever seen any
metal. Without metal tools for cutting the stone there could
be no fine buildings or stone structures. It was impossible to
write, for no one had invented writing, and so there were no
books nor any knowledge of science. At the same time there
were no schools or hospitals or churches, and no laws or
government This book is intended to tell the story of how

Ancient Times

3. Man be-
gan with
nothing and
with no one
to teach him

4. Savages
of to-day
show us the
Ufe of earhest
man ; the
Tasmanians
and what
they had
failed to
learn

5. The
Tasmanians
and what
they had
learned

mankind gained all these things and built up great nations which
struggled among themselves for leadership, and then weakened
and fell. This story forms what we call ancient history.

If we go back far enough in the story of man, we reach a
time when he possessed nothing whatever but his hands with
which to protect himself, satisfy his hunger, and meet all his
other needs. He must have been without speech and unable
even to build a fire. There was no one to teach him anything.
The earliest men who began in this situation had to learn
everything for themselves by slow experience and long effort,
and every tool, however simple, had to be invented.

People so completely uncivilized as the earliest men must
have been, no longer exist on earth. Nevertheless, the lowest
savage tribes found by explorers at the present day are still
leading a life very much like that of our early ancestors.
For example, the Tasmanians, the people whom the English
found on the island of Tasmania a century or so ago, wore
no clothing; they had not learned how to build a roofed hut;
they did not know how to make" a bow and arrows, nor even
to fish. They had no goats, sheep, or cows; no horses, not
even a dog. They had never heard of sowing seed nor rais-
ing a crop of any kind. They did not know that clay would
harden in the fire, and so they had no pottery jars, jugs, or
dishes for food.

Naked and houseless, the Tasmanians had learned to satisfy
only a very few of man's needs. Yet that which they had
learned had carried them a long way beyond the earliest
men. They could kindle a fire, which kept them warm in
cold weather, and over it they cooked their meat. They had
learned to construct very good wooden spears, though without
metal tips, for they had never heard of metal. These spears,
tipped with stone, they could throw with great accuracy, and
thus bring down the game they needed for food, or drive away
their human enemies. They would take a flat stone and, by
chipping off the edges to thin them, they could make a rude

Early Mankind in Europe

knife with which to skin and cut up the game they killed.
They were also very deft in weaving cups, vessels, and baskets
of bark fiber. Above all, they had a simple language, with
words for all the ordinary things they used and did every day.

It was only after sev-
eral hundred thousand
years of savage life and
slow progress that the
earliest prehistoric men
of Europe reached and
passed beyond a stage
of savagery like that
of the Tasmanians just
described. The Eu-
rope which formed the
home of these earliest
men was very differ-
ent from what it is to-
day. In the shadow
of the lofty primeval
forests which fringed
the streams and clothed
the wide plains, the
ponderous hippopota-
mus wallowed along
the shores of the Euro-
pean rivers. The fierce
rhinoceros, with a horn
three feet in length,
charged through the
heavy tropical growth on their banks, and vast elepha its, with
shaggy hair two feet long (Fig. lo, 7), wandered through the
jungles behind. Myriads of bison and wild horses grazed on the
uplands, and the broken glades sheltered numerous herds of
deer. A moist atmosphere, warm and enervating, vibrant with

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6. Prehis-
toric Europe
its climate
and animals

Fig. I. Fire-making without

Matches, by Modern Natives

OF Australia

The outfit is very simple, consisting merely
of a round, dry stick placed upright with
the lower end in a hole in a dry tree-trunk
lying on the ground. By turning the stick
rapidly between both hands the friction
finally generates sufficient heat to produce
flame (§ 8)

Ancient Times

Life and
launts of the

the notes of many tropical birds, pervaded this prehistoric
European wilderness stretching far across Europe.

With nothing to
cover his naked-
ness, the early sav-
age of Europe
roamed stealthily
through these trop-
ital forests, seek-
ing his daily food
among the roots,
seeds, and wild
fruits wherever he
could find them,
and listening with
keen and eager ear
for the sound of
small game which
he might be able
to lay low with his
rough wooden club.
Doubtless he often
fled in terror as he
felt the thunderous
tread of the giant
animals of the for-
est or caught dim
glimpses of colossal
elephants plunging
through the deep
vistas of the jungle.
At night the hunter

Fig. 2. A Group of North American

Indians making Flint Weapons. (After

Holmes)

The farthest Indian is prying loose a large
flint stone. This is the raw material, which is
then taken by the middle Indian, who crashes
it down upon a rock and shatters it into frag-
ments. One of these fragments is then taken
by the nearest Indian, who holds it in his left
hand while he strikes it with a stone in his
right hand. These blows flake off pieces of
flint, and the Indian is so skillful that he can
thus shape a flint hatchet. This process of shap-
ing the flint by blows (that is, by percussion)
was the earliest and rudest method and pro-
duced the roughest stone tools. In the course
of thousands of years two improvements fol-
lowed— chipping the edge hy pressure (Fig. 5)
and sharpening the edge by grinding {Fig. 16,5)

slept wherever the
game had led him, after cutting up the flesh of his prey with
a wooden knife and devouring it raw. Not knowing how to

Early Mankind in Europe 5

make a fire to ward off the savage beasts, he lay trembling in
the darkness at the roar of the mighty saber-tooth tiger.

At length, however, he learned to know fire, perhaps finding 8. Man
it in his jungle haunts when the lightning kindled a forest fire, kindle fire
or fearing it from afar as he viewed the terrible volcanoes ^nd use stone
along the Mediterranean. It was a great step forward when he
at last learned to produce it himself with his whirl-stick (Fig. i).
He could then cook his food, warm his body, and harden the
tip of his wooden spear in the fire. But his dull wooden knife
he could not harden, and he sometimes found a broken stone
and used its ragged edge. When he learned to shape the stone
to suit his needs (Fig. 2), and thus to produce a rude tool or
weapon, he entered what we now call the Stone Age, more
than fifty thousand years ago.

From this point on we can hold in our hands the very stone 9. Career of
tools and implements with which early men maintained them- traceaSe"in
selves in their long struggle to survive. By the long trail of surviving
stone implements which they left behind them we can follow men ts and
them and tell just' how far they had advanced in the succes- of his hands
sive stages of their upward career; for these stages are re-
vealed to us by their increasing skill in working stone and in
other industries which they gradually learned. We can dis-
tinguish, in the examples of their handiwork which still survive,
three successive ages, which we may call the Early Stone Age,
the Middle Stone Age, and the Late Stone Age. Let us now
observe man's progress through these three ages, one after
the other.

Section 2. The Early Stone Age

Until a short time ago it was supposed that human history 10. Modem

was comparatively brief. Moreover, everyone took it for mS^va^t^

granted that the earlier period of man's past had left no sur- ^|^ ""^^j.

viving traces. An old letter written in London two hundred ago
years ago (17 14) tells how a certain apothecary discovered
the bones of an elephant in a gravel-pit near London, and. near

Ancient Times

II. The

Early Stone

Age hunter Y\G. 3. A FliNT FisT-
and I. IS fist- ^

hatchet HATCHET OF THE EaRLY

Stone Age

Rough flint flakes older t)ian
the fist-hatchet still survive
to show us man's earliest
efforts at shaping stone.
But the fist-hatchet is the
earliest well-finished type
of tool produced by man.
The original is about 9
inches long, and the draw
ing reduces it to less than
one third. Either end might
be used as the cutting edge,
but it was usually grasped
in the fist by the narrower
part, and never had any
handle. Handles of wood
or horn do not appear until
much later (cf. Fig. 16,^-5).
Traces of use and wear are
sometimes found on such
fist-hatchets

by, the flint head of a spear. Al-
though this letter was soon after-
ward published, with a drawing of
the spearhead, no attention was paid
to it and it was quickly forgotten.
For over a century similar discov-
eries, both in England and on the
Continent, met with the same fate.
It was not until some fifty years
ago, after the evidence had been
available for a century and a half,
that the eyes of scientific men were
at last opened to the fact of the
enormously long sojourn of man
upon the earth.

Long-continued excavations, es-
pecially in France, have furnished
thousands of stone tools which re-
veal to us the progress of the Early
Stone Age hunter after he had found
that he could chip stones. By study-
ing the collections 6f such stone tools
now in the museums of Europe we
can see how the early man gradually
outgrew a variety of rudely chipped
stones and finally produced a suc-
cessful stone implement (Fig. 3).
This he used for almost everything.
It was from eight to ten inches long,
narrow above and wider below, and
sufficiently sharp to enable him to
cut the roots and branches which he
used for food, to shape his wooden
fire-kindling outfit (Fig. 1), and to
hew out his heavy wooden club.

Early Mankind in Europe 7

This stone implement we call a " fist-hatchet," because it was
grasped in the fist, usually by the narrow end, for the hunter
had not yet discovered how to attach a handle. These fist-
hatchets have been found in many places in Europe as well
as in other parts of the world. It is the earliest widely made
and used human device which has survived to our day.

Perishing probably in great numbers, as his hazardous life 12. Limita-
went on, this savage hunter of prehistoric Europe continued Early stone
for thousands of years the uncertain struggle for survival. He ^^^ "^^"
slowly improved his rough stone fist-hatchet, and he probably
learned to make additional implements of wood, but these have
of course rotted and perished, so that we know nothing of
them. Of all the later possessions of man he had not yet one.
The wide grainfields and the populous and prosperous com-
munities of later Europe were still many thousands of years
distant, in a future which it was even more impossible for
him to foresee than our own now is for us. Single-handed he
waged war upon all animals. There was not a beast which
was not his foe. There was as yet no dog, no sheep or fowl,
to which he might stretch out a kindly hand. The ancestor of
the modern dog was then either the jackal or the fierce wolf of
the forest, leaping upon the primitive hunter unawares, and
those beasts which were the ancestors of our modem domestic
animals were either not yet in existence in Europe or, like the
horse, still wandered the forests in a wild state (cf . Fig. 1 2).

At length the Early Stone Age hunter began to notice that 13. Coming
the air of his forest home was losing its tropical warmth.
Geologists have not yet found out why, but the climate grew
colder, and, as the ages passed, the ice, which all the year round
still overlies the region of the North Pole and the summits of
the Alps, began to descend. The northern ice crept farther and
farther southward until it covered England as far south as the
Thames. The glaciers of the Alps moved down the Rhone
valley as far as the spot where now the city of Lyons stands
(see map, p. 8). On our own continent of North America

First Second

Descent /MstX Descent/' 2d

of the / Warm \ of the /Warm

^iSSy Interval M£S^ Interval

Human bones found as deep as

80 feet below the surface

of the earth

Third Fourth

Descent /3d\ Descent /"4th
of the / Warm \ o^ the / Warm
Ice

/ Interval

Middle
Stone

Interval

gU Late
So *""'

So ^e*

Not less than 50.000 years

Sketch Map of Europe in the Ice Age and Diagram
SHOWING Four Successive Descents of the Ice

During the Ice Age the ice advanced and retreated four times; that
is, there were four periods of cold, each followed by a long interval of
warmth. These periods of cold and warmth are indicated by the fall-
ing (cold) and the rising (warmth) of the wavy line in the diagram. We
are now living in the fourth warm interval. It is clear that prehistoric
men began to make fist-hatchets jn one of the warm intervals ; but it
has been very difficult for geologists and archaeologists to find out which
warm interval. Some think that it was the second, and if so, then men
began making stone tools at least two hundred thousand years ago.
Most investigators, however, now believe that stone toolmaking be-
gan early in the third warm interval ; that is, the warm interval pre-
ceding the last advance of the ice. In this case stone toolmaking may
have begun as late as fifty thousand years before Christ. But Professor
Henry Fairfield Osborn, in his valuable volume Men of the Old Stone Age^
accepts a date over one hundred and twenty-five thousand years ago for
the earliest stone tools, which he also places in the third warm interval

Early Mankind in Europe 9

the southern edge of the ice is marked by lines of bowlders car-
ried and left there by the ice. Such lines of bowlders are found,
for example, as far south as Long Island, and westward along
the valleys of the Ohio and Missouri.

The hunter saw the glittering blue masses of glacier ice, with 14. The end
their crown of snow, pushing through the green of his forest stone Age ^
abode and crushing down vast trees in many a sheltered glen or
favorite hunting-ground. Many of the animals familiar to him re-
treated to the warmer South, and he was forced gradually to ac-
custom himself to a cold climate. This change ended the Early
Stone Age, but the rude fist-hatchet of its hunters, and the bones
of the huge animals they slew, were sometimes left lying side
by side in the sand and gravel far up on the valley slopes where
in these prehistoric ages the rivers of France once flowed,
before their deep modern beds had been eroded. And as these
long-buried relics are brought forth to-day, they tell us the fas-
cinating story of man's earliest progress in gaining control of
the world about him. The coming of the ice, strange as it may
seem, brought with it a new period of progress, which we call
the Middle Stone Age.

Section 3. The Middle Stone Age

Unable to build himself a shelter from the cold, the hunter 15. The in-
took refuge in the limestone caves (Fig. 4), where he and his Middle^stone
descendants continued to live for thousands of years. We can ^^^ '"^^ ' *'^^

•^ new pressure-

imagine him at the door of his cave, carefully chipping off the chipped

edge of his flint tools. He has left the rude old fist-hatchet far troduc^ron'of
behind, for the hunter has finally discovered that hy pressure with I'vo'l^ Impig.
a hard piece of bone he can chip off a line of fine flakes along "^^^^s
the edge of his flint tool and thus produce a much finer cutting
edge (Fig. 5) than by chipping with blows {px percussion), as
he formerly did. This discovery enabled him to produce a con-
siderable variety of flint tools — chisels, drills and hammers,
polishers and scrapers (Fig. 5). The new/r<?jj2/r<f-chipped edges

Ancient Times

were sharp enough to cut and shape even bone, ivory, and
especially reindeer horn. The mammoth (Fig. i o, /) furnished
the hunter with ivory, and when he needed horn he found
great herds of reindeer,^ driven southward by the ice, grazing
before the entrance of his cavern (Fig. i o, j-j).

Fig. '4. Cliffs in the South of France containing Caverns

INHABITED BY MIDDLE StONE AgE MaN

This district is filled with remains of Middle Stone Age man. The
dark opening at A is the entrance to a famous cavern (called Font-de-
Gaume) containing the'finest wall paintings (§ 18) of the Middle Stone
Age surviving in France. They are surpassed only by those of Altamira,
Spain. On the floor are layers of rubbish containing human remains,
as in Fig. 9. (Drawn from a photograph by Professor Osborn)

16. The Mid-
dle Stone
Age hunter's
new weapons
and skin
clothing

Equipped with his new and keener tools, the hunter worked
out barbed ivory spear-points, which he mounted with long
wooden shafts. He also discovered the bow and arrows, and
he carried at his girdle a sharp flint dagger. For straightening
his wooden spear-shafts and arrows he invented an ingenious
shaft-straightener of reindeer horn. Another clever device of

1 The reindeer was so plentiful in this age that French archaeologists often
call it the " Reindeer Age."

Early Mankind in Europe

horn or ivory was his new throwing-stick, by which he could
hurl his long spear much farther and with greater power
(Figs. 6 and 7)
than he could be-
fore. Fine ivory
needles (Fig. 8)
show that the
hunter now pro-
tected himself from
cold, and from the
brambles of the
forest wilderness
with clothing made
by sewing together
the skins of the
animals he slew.
Thus equipped,
the hunter of the
Middle Stone Age
was a much more
dangerous foe of
the wild creatures
than were his an-
cestors of the Early
Stone Age. In a
single cavern in
Sicily modem ar-
chaeologists have
dug out the bones
of no less than two
thousand hippo-
potamuses which
these Middle Stone Age hunters killed. In France one group
of such men slew so many wild horses (Fig. 10, d) for food that
the bones which they tossed about their camp fires gathered

Fig.

Flint Tools And Weapons
THE Middle Stone Age

From right to left they include knives, spear-
and arro\^-points, scrapers, drills, and various
edged tools. They show great skill and preci-
sion in flaking. The fine edges have all been
produced by chipping off a line of flakes along
the margin, seen especially in the long piece at
the right. This chipping is done by pressure.
The brittleness of flint is such that if a hard
piece of bone is pressed firmly against a flint
edge, a flake of flint, often reaching far back
from the edge, will snap off in response to
increasing pressure. This was a great im-
provement over the earliest method by striking
{percussion^ Figs. 2 and 3)

17. Life of
the Middle
Stone Age
hunter

12 Ancient Times

in masses forming a layer in some places six feet thick and
covering a space about equal to four modem city lots of
fifty by two hundred feet. Among such deposits excavators
have found even the bone whistle with which the returning
hunter announced his coming to the hungry family waiting
in the cave (Fig. 4). On his arrival there he found his home
surrounded by revolting piles of garbage. Amid foul odors

Fig. 6. Modern Eskimo Native hurling a Spear with a
Throwing-Stick

The spear lies in a channel in the throwing-stick (a), which the hunter
grasps at one end. At the outer end [b) of the throwing-stick is a hook
(cf. Fig. 7, B) against which the butt of the spear lies, and as the hunter
throws forward his arm, retaining the throwing-stick in his hand and
allowing the spear to go, the throwing-stick acts like an elongation of
his arm, giving great sweep and propelling power as the spear is dis-
charged. Modern schoolboys would not find it hard to make and use
such a throwing-stick (see § 16)

of decaying flesh this savage European crept into his cave-
dwelling at night, little realizing that, many feet beneath the
cavern floor on which he slept, lay the remains of his ancestors
in layer upon layer, the accumulations of thousands of years

(Fig. 9).
18. Discov- It is not a little astonishing to find that these Middle Stone

Stone Agf^^ Age hunters could already carve (Fig. 7), draw (Fig. 10), and
art— carv- ^^^^ paint with considerable skill. A Spanish nobleman, in-

ings, draw- ^ . -vt i o •

ings, and vcstigating a cavern on his estate in Northern Spam, was at
pamungs ^^^ ^^^ digging among the accumulations on the floor of the

Early Mankind in Europe

cave, where he found flint and bone im-
plements, when his little daughter, who
was playing about in the gloom of
the cavern, suddenly shouted, "Toros!
toros 1 " (" Bulls 1 bulls 1 "). At the same
time she pointed to the ceiling. The
startled father, looking up, beheld a
never-to-be-forgotten sight which at once
interrupted his flint-digging. In a long
line stretching far across the ceiling of
the cavern was a vast procession of
bison bulls painted in well-preserved col-
ors on the rock. For at least ten thou-
sand years no human eye had beheld
these cave paintings of a vanished race
of prehistoric men, till the eye of a child
rediscovered them.

Other evidences of higher life among
these early men are few indeed. Never-
theless, even these ancient men of the
Middle Stone Age believed in divine
beings; they already had a crude idea
of the life of the soul, or of the de-
parted person after death. Dressed in
his customary ornaments, equipped at
least with a few flint implements, and
protected by a rough circle of stones,
the departed hunter was buried in the
cave beneath the hearth where he had
so often shared the results of the hunt
with his family. Here the bodies of
these primitive men are found at the
present day, lying in successive strata
of refuse which continued to collect for
ages, the lowest bodies sometimes far

A B

Fig. 7. A Throwing-
Stick once used by
A Hunter of the
Middle Stone Age

Two views of the same
stick, seen from front
(A) and side {B). It is
carved of reindeer horn
to represent the head
and forelegs of an ibex.
Observe hook at the top
of B for holding the butt
of the spear-shaft, as in
Fig. 6. The throwing-
stick and the bow were
man's earliest devices
for propelling his weap-
ons with speed

19. Religion
and life here-
after, in the
Middle Stone
Age

Ancient Times

20. Retreat
of the ice ;
dawn of the
Late Stone
Age

down at the bottom of the deep accumulations which gathered
over them (Fig. 9).

The signs left by the ice, and still observable in Europe, would
lead us to think that it slowly withdrew northward to its present
latitude probably not less than some ten thousand years ago.
The retreat of the ice was due to the fact that the climate
again grew warmer and became what it is to-day. At this
point, therefore, the men of the Middle Stone Age, whose story

we have been follow-
ing in France, entered
upon natural conditions
in Europe like those
of to-day. They had,
meantime, maintained
steady progress in the
production of tools and
implements with which
to carry on their strug-
gle for existence and
to wring subsistence
from the world around them. That progress now carried man
into the third great period of the Stone Age, which we may
call the Late Stone Age.^

Fig. 8. Ivory Needle of the
Middle Stone Age

Such needles are found still surviving in
the rubbish in the French caverns, where
the wives of the prehistoric hunters lost
them and failed to find them again twenty
thousand years ago. They show that these
women were already sewing together the
skins of wild animals as clothing

21. Distribu-
tion of surviv-
ing remains

Section 4. The Late Stone Age

The Late Stone Age remains of man's life are discovered

widely distributed throughout a large part of Europe. In our

of Late Stone studv of such remains we must regard Europe as a whole.

Age man m -^ . . .

Europe and not confine ourselves to France and its vicinity, as here-

tofore. Especially beside watercourses, lakes, and inlets of the

1 The Stone Age periods are as follows :

Early Stone Age (stone edge made by striking, or percussion) ) Called Paleolithic Age
Middle Stone Age (chipped stone edge made by pressure) ) by archaeologists.

. , J J ,. • J- X ) Called NeoUthic Age by

Late Stone Age (stone edge made by grinding) | arch^ologists.

Fig. 9. A Cross Section showing the Layers of Rubbish

AND the Human Remains in a Middle Stone Age Cavern

(After D^chelette)

This cavern is at Grimaldi on the ItaHan coast of the Mediterranean,
just outside of France. The entrance is at the left and the back wall
at the right. We see the original rock floor at the bottom, and above
it the layers of accumulations, 30 feet deep (§ 17). The black lines A
to / represent layers of ashes, etc., the remains of nine successive
hearth-fires, each of which must have been kept going by the natives
for many years. The thicker (lightly shaded) layers consisted of bones
of animals, rubbish, and rocks which had fallen from the roof of the
cavern in the course of ages. The lowermost layers (below /) con-
tained bones of the rhinoceros (representing a warm climate), while the
uppermost layers contained bones of the reindeer (indicating a cold
climate). Two periods, the Early and the Middle Stone Age, are thus
represented ; the Early Stone Age below, the Middle Stone Age (or
Reindeer Age, § 1 5) above. Five burials were found by the excavators
in the layers B, C, H, and /; layer C contained the bodies of two
children. The lowermost burial (in /) was 25 feet below the surface of
the accumulations in the cave. Such prehistoric skulls and bones show
that several different races followed each other in Europe during the
Stone Age. The space required and the difficulties involved in their
discussion have compelled their omission in this volume. Hence the
successive culture stages have been presented without reference to race

Fig. io. Carvings in Ivory (i and 3-7) and in Stone of

Cavern Walls (2), made by the Hunters of the Middle

Stone Age

The oldest works of art by man, made ten or fifteen thousand years ago.
/, reindeer and salmon — hunter's and fisherman's talisman ; 2, bison
bull at bay ; j, grazing reindeer ; 4, running reindeer ; 5, head of woman,
front view and profile ; 6, head of wild horse whinnying ; 7, mammoth,
showing huge tusks and long hair — an animal long since extinct

Early Mankind in Europe

sea these early communities throughout most of Europe located
their settlements. It is, however, impossible to determine the
different races and peoples in various parts of Europe in the
Late Stone Age.

The earliest of such Late Stone
Age settlements are found on the
shores of Denmark, where the
wattle huts (Fig. 11) of the prehis-
toric Norsemen stretched in strag-
gling lines far along the sea beach.
We do not know the race of these
earliest Norsemen, but we can see
that they were both fishermen and
hunters. They already possessed
rude boats from which they were
able to secure myriads of oystSrs
near the shore, or even to push
timidly out into deep water for
other shellfish. On shore the
hunter followed the wild boar and
the wild bull (Fig. 1 2) in the neigh-
boring forests, and brought down
the waterfowl in the marshes. The
air was keen — possibly a little
colder than now. On their return
at twilight the hunters and fisher-
men, crouching about the fire, de-
voured their prey, tossing aside
the oyster shells and the bones of
deer and wild boar, which formed
a circle of very ill-smelling food
refuse about the fire.

This refuse gathered in ridges parallel with the shore-line
and hundreds of feet long (Fig. 13), marking the line of
fires which once gleamed along the shores of prehistoric

22. Earliest
settlements
of the Late
Stone Age
found in
Denmark

Fig. 1 1 . Plan of Remains

OF A Late Stone Age

Hut

The circle of stones sur-
rounded the base of the walls.
Beside the door (at the left)
is a rough stone hearth, placed
there in order to allow the
smoke to escape through the
door, chimneys having not
yet been devised. The walls
were of wattle (interwoven
reeds), made tight by daub-
ing with clay. The rubbish
found in the circle sometimes
contains patches of burned
clay, bearing on one side the
indented pattern of the basket-
like wattle and on the other
the impression of the human
fingers which pressed the clay
on the walls thousands of
years ago. The fire which
destroyed the hut baked the
clay plaster to pottery

m$R'mfmj\i0m<}mMmm

|[)iiiiiniljillln{iiii/(n|iiii"j|tl9

Fig. 12. Skeleton of a Wild Bull bearing the Marks of

THE Late Stone Age Hunters' Arrows which killed him in

THE Danish Forests some Ten Thousand Years ago

A Late Stone Age hunter {§ 22) shot him in the back near the spine
(see uj>/>er white ring on skeleton). The wound healed, leaving a scar
on the rib {A, above). Another hunter later shot him, and this time sev-
eral arrows pierced his vitals. One of them, however, struck a rib (see
lower white ring on skeleton) and broke off. Both sides of this wound,
still unhealed, with the broken flint arrowhead still filling it, are shown
above in B and C. While the wounded bull was trying to swim across
a neighboring lake he died and his body sank to the bottom, and the
pursuing hunter, on reaching the lake, found no trace of him. In the
course of thousands of years the lake slowly filled up, and water 10 feet
deep was followed by dry peat of the same depth, covering the skeleton
of the bull. Here he was found some years ago (1905), and 'with him
were the flint arrowheads that had killed him. His skeleton, still bear-
ing the marks of the flint arrowheads {A, B, C), was removed and set
up in the Museum at Copenhagen
. 18

Early Mankind in Europe

Denmark. Each of these shell-heaps is to-day a storehouse of 23. The shell-
heaps of

Denmark and
their revela-

remains from the life of these earliest Norsemen. The shells
and bones reveal how extensive was their control over the wild
life about them. The marks of animal teeth on many a bone
show us how the jackals of the neighboring forest crept up to
gnaw, the bones along the margin of the heap; and, slowly
growing more and more familiar with their human neighbors,

tions

-,. . ,„,,,.

^^^^^fc^

'''^^^tt^HJjhaigHpBpf^

2^^^^^^^-' viflpl?;:-';':

'Z!!^'-aw>>p^ig^'!g^^^^|^

jBgi^s***^^'''-^*-' ■ "■■''!,i|*^'

gS^^^Sr-

r<^y:"".^.^.vs^^^S^^j^y*^Jy^HBSJ

K *!»ri''iii"i''' ' ' .\i

^^i^^^' '"' ''''Si

hPI^^P^^' "^'

SBSiii^ifS!

^^^^^^kM^^^(<^^^^^^l^\

Fig. 13. Ridge composed of the Food Refuse of Late
Stone Age Man on the Coast of Denmark

The ridge on the top of the hill at the right stretches along the margin
of a depression (at the left), which was once a shallow inlet of the sea
but is now filled up and has become a hayfield (notice the hay wagon).
Such a ridge made up chiefly of oyster shells is sometimes over half a
mile long and over thirty paces wide and may contain a hundred thousand
stone tools, weapons, and fragments of pottery

these wild beasts at last remained by the fireside, to become
the loyal companions of man, the earliest domestic animal, which
to-day we call the dog.

Bits of burned clay and broken pots, still lying in these
shell-heaps, show us that these early Norsemen had already
gained knowledge, probably from the South, of the hardening
quality of clay when exposed to fire, and they were now able
to make rude kettles of burned clay, which we call pottery,
the earliest in Europe.^ This is one of the most important

1 Pottery was probably invented independently in many different regions of
the world. The endeavor to make a water-tight, fireproof kettle by smearing a
basket with clay would result in pottery when the attempt was made to heat
water in it over a fire.

24. Indus-
tries revealed
by the shell-
heaps of
Denmark :
earliest fot-
teiy in
Europe ;
ground stone
tools

20 Ancient Times

innovations of the Late Stone Age. Another important achieve-
ment marked the beginning of this age. This was the discovery
that the edge of a stone tool might be ground upon a whetstone^
precisely as we grind a steel tool at the present day. In the
shell-heaps we find the earliest heavy stone axes with a ground
edge (Fig. i6, 5). They made the man of the Late Stone Age
vastly more successful in his control of the world about him.

25. Tools of His list of tools as he went about his work was now almost
Stone Age ^s complete as that of the modern carpenter. It included,
™^^ besides the ax, likewise chisels, knives, drills, saws, and whet-
stones, made mostly of flint but sometimes of other hard
stones. Our ancient craftsman had now learned also to at-
tach a wooden handle by lashings around the ax-head, or
even to bore a hole in the ax-head and insert the handle
(Fig. 16,5). These tools as found to-day often display a polish
due to the wear which they have undergone in the hands of
the user.

26. Effective- It is a mistake to suppose that such stone tools were wholly
"oofs° ^'^"^ crude and ineffective. A recent experiment in Denmark has

shown that a modern mechanic with a stone ax, although un-
accustomed to the use of stone tools, was able, in ten work-
ing hours, to cut down and convert into logs twenty-six pine
trees eight inches in thickness. Indeed, the entire work of
getting out the timber and building a house was done by one
mechanic with stone tools in eighty-one days. It was therefore
quite possible for the men of the Late Stone Age to build
comfortable dwellings and to attain a degree of civilization far
above that of savages.

27. Swiss This step, however, we are not able to follow among the
ofthe'L?t? shell-heaps of Denmark. The most plentiful traces of the
Stone Age earliest wooden houses are to be found in Switzerland, whither

we must now go. Here the house-building communities of the
Late Stone Age, desiring to make themselves safer from attack
by man and beast, built their villages out over the Swiss lakes.
They erected their dwellings upon platforms supported over

Early Mankind in Europe

the water by piles which they drove into the lake bottom. In
long lines such lake-villages, or groups oi pile-dwellings^ as they
are called, fringed the shores of the Swiss lakes (Fig. 14). In
a few cases they grew to a considerable size. At Wangen not

Fig. 14. Restoration of a Swiss Lake-Dweclers'
Settlement

The lake-dwellers felled trees with their stone axes (Fig. 16,5) and cut
them into piles some 20 feet long, sharpened at the lower end. These
they drove several feet into the bottom of the lake, in water 8 or 10 feet
deep. On a platform supported by these piles they then built their
houses. The platform was connected with the shore by a bridge, which
may be seen here on the right. A section of it could be removed at
night for protection. The fish nets seen drying at the rail, the " dug-
out " boat of the hunters who bring in the deer, and many other things
have been found on the lake bottom in recent times

less than fifty thousand piles were driven into the bottom of
the lake for the support of the village (see remains of such
piles in Fig. 15).

In so far as we can judge, these lake-dwellers lived a life 28. Life of
of enviable peace and prosperity. Their houses were comfort-
able shelters, and they were furnished with plentiful wooden

Ancient Times

furniture and implements, wooden pitchers and spoons, besides
pottery dishes, bowls, and jars (Fig. 1 6, 7, 2, j). Although
roughly made without the use of the potter's wheel (§ 83), and
unevenly burned without an oven (Fig. 48), pottery vessels
added much to the convenience of the house. The waters
under the settlement teemed with fish, which were caught

Fig. 15. Surviving Remains of a Swiss Lake-Village

After an unusually dry season the Swiss lakes fell to a very low level
in 1854, exposing the lake bottom with the rernains of the piles which
once supported the lake villages along the shores. They were thus dis-
covered for the first time. On the old lake bottom, among the projecting
piles, were found great quantities of implements, tools, and furniture,
like those in Fig. 16, including the dugouts and nets of Fig. 14, wheat,
barley, bones of domestic animals, woven flax, etc. (§ 29). There they
had been lying some five thousand years. Sometimes the objects were
found in two distinct layers, the lower (earlier) containing only stone
tools, and the upper (later) containing bronze tools, which came into the
lake-village at a later age and fell into the water on top of the layer
of old stone tools already lying on the bottom of the lake (see § 329)

29. Domesti-
cation of wild
grains and
beginning of
agriculture ;
flax and
weaving

with a bone hook through a trapdoor in the floor of the
house, or snared in nets which the possession of flax, as we
shall see, enabled the lake-villagers to make.

While he had thus not ceased to be a fisherman and hunter,
the lake-dweller now discovered other sources of food. For
thousands of years the women of these early ages had gath-
ered the seeds of wild grasses to be crushed between two
stones and made into rude cakes. They now gradually learned

Early Mankind in Europe

that the growth of such wild grasses on the margins of the
forest and the shores of the lake might be artificially aided.

From such beginnings it was but a step to drop the seed 30- Cultiva-

, 1 • • 1 T tion of millet,

into the soil at the proper season, to cultivate it, and to harvest barley, and

Fig. 16. Part of the Equipment of a Late Stone Age
Lake-Dweller

This group contains the evidence for three important inventions made
or received by the men of the Late Stone Age : firsts pottery jars, like
2 and J, with rude decorations, the oldest baked clay in Europe, and /,
a large kettle in which the lake-dwellers' food was cooked; second^
ground-edged tools like ,/, a stone chisel with ground edge (§ 24),
mounted in a deerhorn handle like a hatchet, or j", stone ax with a
ground edge, and pierced with a hole for the ax handle (the houses of
Fig. 14 were built with such tools) ; and third, weaving, as shown by 6, a
spinning "whorl" of baked clay, the earliest spinning wheel. When
suspended by a rough thread of flax 18 to 20 inches long, it was given
a whirl which made it spin in the air like a top, thus rapidly twisting the
thread by which it was hanging. The thread when sufficiently twisted
was wound up, and another length of 18 to 20 inches was drawn out
from the unspun flax to be similarly twisted. One of these earliest spin-
ning wheels has been found in the Swiss lakes with a spool of flaxen
thread still attached. (From photograph loaned by Professor Hoernes)

the yield. When they had learned to do this, the women of
these lake-dwellers were already agriculturists. The grains
which they planted were barley, wheat, and some millet* This

1 Oats and rye, however, were still unknown, and came in much later.

Ancient Times

31. Social
effects of
agriculture

32. Domesti-
cation of
sheep, goats,
and cattle

new source of food was a plentiful one ; more than a hundred
bushels of grain were found by the excavators on the lake bot-
tom under the vanished lake-village of Wangen. Up the hillside
now stretched also the lake-dweller's little field of flax beside
the growing grain. His women sat spinning flax (Fig. 16, 6)
before the door, and the rough skin clothing of their ancestors
(Fig. 8) had given way to garments of woven stuff.

These fields were an additional reason for the permanency
of the lake-dweller's home. It was necessary for him to remain
near the little plantation for which his women had hoed the
ground, that they might care for it and gather the grain when
it ripened. As each household gradually gained an habitual
right to cultivate a particular field, they came to set up a per-
petual claim to it, and thus arose the ownership of land. It
was to be a frequent source of trouble in the future career of
man, and the chief cause of the long struggle between the rich
and the poor — a struggle which was earlier unknown, when
land was free to all.

On the green Swiss uplands above the lake-villages were
now feeding the descendants of the wild creatures which the
Middle Stone Age hunters had pursued through the forests
and mountains ; for the mountain sheep and goats and the wild
cattle (Fig. 12), like the dog on the shores of Denmark (§ 23),
had slowly learned to dwell near man and submit to his con-
trol.^ For a long time, however, the Late Stone Age man in
-Europe was still without any beast of burden. For thousands
of years his ancestors of the Middle Stone Age had pursued
the wild horse for food (§ 17), but had made no effort to
tame and subdue the animal.^

1 Domestication of these animals, like the cultivation of grain and flax, was
much older in the Orient than in the Late Stone Age in Europe ; but it is still
a question just how the early Europeans received these things from the Orient.
(See § 49.)

2 The draft horse, one of the most important influences in the history of
civilization, came in comparatively late, from the Northern Orient, as we shall
see (§247).

Early Mankind in Europe 25

The strong limbs of the once wild ox (Fig. 12), however, 33. Earliest
made him well adapted to draw the hoe of Late Stone Age '-^^xl^^^^^ ^
man across the field — a hoe, to be sure, equipped with two culture"
handles (Fig. 44), which thus became the earliest plow, while
the ox which was tamed to draw it became the earliest draft
animal of Europe. Thus " plow culture " slowly replaced the
cruder and more limited " hoe culture " ^ carried on by the
women. It was at this point, therefore, that the early European
passed far beyond our own North American Indians, who
remained until the discovery of America entirely without draft
animals, and hence practiced only "hoe culture."

Agriculture, requiring as it now did the driving and control 34. Social
of large draft animals, exceeded the strength of the primitive «piow
woman, and the primitive man was obliged to give up more settled a 'ri^^
and more of his hunting freedom and devote himself to the cultural life
field. Thus the hunter of thousands of years became an
agriculturist, a farmer. By this time a large part of the Late
Stone Age Europeans had adopted fixed abodes, following the
settled agricultural life in and around villages (§38). *' ■

On the other hand, the domestication of grass-eating animals, 35. Flocks
feeding on the grasslands, created not only a new industry the wander.
but also a second class of men who might still follow a roving j"f|'<Jf°the^
life, leading their flocks about and pasturing them where the shepherd
grasslands were too poor for agriculture. Such shepherd people
we call nomads, and they still exist to-day. Without any fixed
dwelling places, accompanied by their wives and children, they
lead a wandering life, driving their flocks from pasture to pas-
ture. These nomad peoples took possession of the eastern
grasslands stretching from the Danube eastward along the
north side of the Black Sea and thence far over into Asia.
Their life always remained ruder and less civilized than that
of the agriculturalists and townsmen (see § 136).

1 " Hoe culture " is the term applied to agriculture carried on by hand,
without any draft animals ; that is, entirely with the hoe, as contrasted with ^

cultivation by the plow drawn by an animaL

Ancient Times

36. Age-long
conflict be-
tween

nomads and
townsmen

37. Buildings
and architec-
ture in Late
Stone Age
Europe

38. The

earliest towns
in Europe ;
rise of gov-
ernment

Thus developed side by side two methods of life — the settled,
agricultural life and the wandering, nomad life. The impor-
tance, of understanding these will be evident when we realize
that the grasslands became the home of a numerous unsettled
population. Thus such grasslands have become like overfilled
reservoirs of nomad peoples, who have periodically overflowed
and overwhelmed the towns and the agricultural settlements.
Many epochs of human history can be understood only as we
bear these facts in mind, especially as we shall see later Europe
invaded over and over again by the hordes of intruding nomads
from the eastern grasslands (§§ 370-373 and Section 99).

The settled communities of the Late Stone Age at last began
to leave behind them more impressive monuments than pottery
and stone tools. In all Europe before this there had existed
only fragile houses and huts. But toward the close of the Late
Stone Age the more powerful chiefs in the large settlements
learned to erect great tombs, built of enormous blocks of stone.
They fringe the western coast of Europe from Spain to the
southern Scandinavian shores. There are at the present day no
less than thirty-four hundred stone tombs of this age, some
of considerable size, on the Danish island of Seeland alone.
In France (Fig. 17) they exist in vast numbers and imposing
size, and likewise in England. The often enormous blocks in
these structures (Figs. 18, 20, and 21) were mostly left in the
rough, but if cut at all, it was done with stone chisels. Such
structures are not of masonry, that is, of smoothly cut stone
laid with mortar. They can hardly be called works of great
architecture, — a thing which did not as yet exist in Europe.
We shallfirst meet it in the Orient (§ 95).

When we look at such buildings of the Late Stone Age still
surviving, they prove to us the existence of the earliest towns in
Europe. For near every great group of stone tombs there must
have been a town where the people lived who built the tombs.
The remains of some of these towns have been discovered, and
they have been dug out from the earth covering them. Almost

Early Mankind in Europe

all traces of them had disappeared, but enough remained to show
that they had been surrounded by walls of earth, with a ditch
on the outside and probably with a wooden stockade along the
top of the earth wall. They show us that men were learning to
live together in considerable numbers and to work together on

Fig. 17. Late Stone Age Tomb in France

It was in such tombs that dead chiefs of the Late Stone Age were buried.
The stones, weighing even as much as 40 tons apiece, were sometimes
dragged many miles from the nearest quarry ; but much heavier ones
were also used (see Fig. 18). These blocks were not smoothed but left
rough as they came from the mountain side

a large scale. It required organization and successful manage-
ment of men to raise the earth walls of such a town, to
drive the fifty thousand piles supporting the lake setdement at
Wangen (Switzerland), or to move the enormous blocks of stone
for building the chieftain's tomb (Figs. 17, 18, 20, and 21).
In such achievements we see the beginnings of government,

Ancient Times

39. Festivals
and athletic
contests
shown by the
stone build-
ings of Late
Stone Age
Europe

organized under a leader. Many little states, each consisting
of a fortified town with its surrounding fields, and each under
a chieftain, must have grown up in Late Stone Age Europe.
Out of such beginnings nations were yet to grow.

Furthermore, these stone buildings furnish us very interesting
glimpses into the life of the Late Stone Age towns. Some of
them suggest to us pictures of whole communities issuing from
the towns on feast days and marching to such places as the

Fig. 18. Fallen Memorial Stone of the Late Stone Age
IN Northern France

This vast block once stood upright, having been erected by the men

of the Late Stone Age as a tombstone. It is almost 65 feet long and

weighs some 300 tons. The fall has broken it into three pieces

huge stone circles at Stonehenge (Fig. 20). Here they held
memorial contests, chariot races, and athletic games in honor of
the dead chief buried within the stone circles. The domestic
horse had now reached western Europe, and the straight chariot
course, nearly two miles long, still to be seen at Stonehenge,
must have resounded with the shouts of the multitudes as the
competing chariots, thundered down the course.-^ The long
processional avenues, marked out by mighty stones, in north-
west France (Fig. 21) must have been alive with festival proces-
sions and happy multitudes every season for centuries. To-day,
silent and solitary, they stretch for miles across the fields of
1 One of the chariots later used on such a course may be seen in Fig. 133.

Early Mankind in Europe

40. Rise of

trades in the
outgoing

the French peasants, a kind of voiceless echo of forgotten
human joys, of ancient customs and beliefs long revered by
the vanished races of prehistoric Europe.

While such monuments show us the Late Stone Age com-
munities at play, other remains reveal them at their work. Each
town was largely a home manufacturer and produced what it A^^g.^^j^^n
needed for itself. Men were beginning to adopt trades ; for as a trade
example, some men
were probably wood-
workers, others were
potters, and still others
were already miners.
These early miners
burrowed far into the
earth in order to reach
the finest deposits of
flint for their stone
tools. In the under-
ground tunnels of the
ancient flint mines
at Brandon, England,
eighty worn picks of
deerhorn were found
in recent times. At
one place the roof
had caved in, cutting

off an ancient gallery of the mine. In this gallery, behind the
fallen rocks, modern archaeologists found two more deerhorn
picks. These picks bore a coat of chalk dust in which were
still visible the marks of the workmen's fingers, left there as
they last laid down the implements, many thousands of years
ago. In Belgium even the skeleton of one of these ancient
miners, who had been crushed by falling rocks, was found in
the mine with his deerhorn pick still lying between his hands
(Fig. 22).

Fig. 19. Vertebra of a Late Stone

Age Man with a Flint Arrowhead

sticking in^ it

The arrowhead {A) struck the victirn full in
the pit of the stomach. It must have been
driven by a heavy bow, for it passed clear
through to the vertebra, producing perito-
nitis and death. (Photograph furnished by
the great French archaeologist Dechelette,
who himself fell in battle not long after
sending this photograph to the author)

wmm

O Q

o o

^ W

o ^

O o

Pi w

o ffi

^ w

« ;?;

^ 2

o ^

Early Mankind in Europe

Exchange and traffic between the communities already existed. 41. Com-
This primitive commerce carried far and wide an especially fine intercourse
variety of French flint, recognizable to-day by its color. The g^^Jj^ ^^^
amber gathered on the shores of the Baltic was already passing
from hand to hand and thus found its way southward. Stone
implements found on the islands around Europe show that
men of this age lived on such islands, and they must have had
boats sufficiently strong to carry them thither. Several of the

Fig. 21. Avenues of the Late Stone Age in Northern
France (Carnac, Brittany)

The tall stones mark out avenues nearly 2\ miles long, containing nearly
three thousand stones. These avenues were used for festival proces-
sions or for races, as on the course at Stonehenge (Fig. 20 and § 39),
at the religious celebrations of the Late Stone Age communities

dugouts (Fig. 14) of the lake-dwellers have been found lying
on the lake bottom among the piles, but vessels with sails had
not yet been devised in Europe.

The business of such an age was of course very primitive. 42. Primi-
There were no metals and no money. Buying and selling were rnShodror
only exchange of one kind of wares for another kind. In all Late Stone
Europe there was no writing, nor did the continent of Europe
ever devise a system of writing. If credit was given, the trans-
action might be recorded in a few strokes scratched in the mud
plaster of the wattle house wall (Fig. 11) to aid the memory
as to the number of fish or jars of grain to be paid for later.

Ancient Times

43. Wars of
the Late
Stone Age

But the intercourse between these prehistoric communities
was not always peaceful. The earthen walls and wooden stock-
ades with which such towns were protected (§ 38) show us
that the chieftain's war-horn must often have summoned these
people from feasts and athletic games, or from the fields and
mines, to expel the invader. Grim evidence of these earliest
wars of Europe still survives. A skull taken out of a tomb of
this age in Sweden contains a flint arrowhead still sticking iii

Fig. 22. Skeleton of a Miner of the Late Stone Age

The skeleton of this ancient miner was found lying on the floor of a
flint mine in Belgium, under the rocks which had caved in and crushed
him. Before him, just as it dropped from his hands at the instant
of the cave-in, lies the double-pointed pick of deerhorn (§ 40) with
which he was loosening the lumps of flint from their chalk bed, when
the rock ceiling fell upon him and he was killed

44. Late
Stone Age
Europe and
the Orient

one 'eyehole, while in France more than one human vertebra
has been found with a flint arrowhead driven deep into it
(Fig. 19). A stone coffin found in a Scottish cairn contained
the body of a man of huge size, with one arm almost severed
from the shoulder by the stroke of a stone ax. A fragment of
stone broken out of the ax blade still remained in the gashed
arm bone.

After fifty thousand years of progress carried on by their
own efforts, the men of Stone Age Europe seemed now (about
3000 B.C.) to have reached a point where they could advance

Early Mankind in Europe 33

no farther. They were still without writings for making the
records of business, government, and tradition ; they were still
without metah ^ with which to make tools and to develop indus-
tries and manufactures ; and they had no sailing ships in which
to carry on commerce. Without these things they could go no
farther. All these and many other possessions of civilization
came to early Europe from the nearer Orient,^ the lands around
the eastern end of the Mediterranean (see map, p. 100). In
order to understand the further course of European history,
we must therefore turn to the Orient, whence came these
indispensable things which made it possible for our European
ancestors to gain the civilization we have inherited.

As we go to the Orient let us remember that we have been 45. Histori-
following man's /r^/w/^r^V progress as it went on for some fifty ^^ summary
thousand years after he began making stone implements. In
the Orient, during the thousand years from 4000 to 3000 B.C.
(see diagram. Fig. 2i^)^ i^en slowly built up a high civilization,
forming the beginning of the Historic Epoch.^ Civilization thus
began in the Orient, and it is between five and six thousand
years old. There it long flourished and produced great and

1 Metal was introduced in southeastern Europe about 3000 B. c. and passed
like a slow wave, moving gradually westward and northward across Europe. It
probably did not reach Britain until about 2000 b. c. Hence we have included
the great stone monuments of western Europe (like Stonehenge) in our sun-ey
of Stone Age Europe. They were erected long after southeastern Europe had
received metal, but before metal came into common use in ivestent Europe.

'^ The word " Orient" is used to-day to include Japan, China, and India. These
lands make up 2i farther Orient. There is also a nearer Orient, consisting of the
lands around' the eastern end of the Mediterranean, that is, Egypt and Western
Asia, including Asia Minor, We shall use the word "Orient" in this book to
designate the nearer Orient.

3 We may best describe the Historic Epoch by saying that it is the epoch
beginning when written documents were first produced by man — documents
which tell us in written words something of man's life and career. All that we
know of man in the age previous to the appearance of writing has to be learned
from weapons, tools, implements, buildings, and other things (bearing no writing)
which he has left behind. These are the things from which we have been learn-
ing something of the story of prehistoric Europe in Chapter I. The transition
from the Prehistoric to the Historic Epoch was everywhere a slow and gradual
one. In the Orient this transition took place in the thousand years between
4000 and 3000 B.C.

34 Ancient Times

powerful nations, while the men of Late Stone Age Europe
continued to live without metals or writing. As they gradually
acquired these things, civilized leadership both in peace and
war shifted slowly from the Orient to Europe. As we turn to
watch civilization emerging in the East, with metals, govern-
ment, writing, great ships, and many other creations of civiliza-
tion, let us realize that its later movement will steadily carry us
from east to west as we follow it from the Orient to Europe.

QUESTIONS

Section i . What progress in invention have you noticed in your
own lifetime .'' Has every device or convenience man now possesses
had to be invented in the same way 1 Was there a time when man
possessed none of these things ? Did he have anyone to teach him 1
Describe the life of the Tasmanians in recent times. Describe pre-
historic Europe and the life of the earliest men there. What three
ages ensued.?

Section 2. Give examples of the discovery of man's great age
on the earth. Describe the earliest stone weapon. About when did
the Early Stone Age begin.? (See map, p. 8, and read description.)
What age did it introduce.? Describe the life of the Early Stone
Age hunter. What great change ended this age.? Describe it.

Section 3. Where did the Middle Stone Age hunters take
refuge? What improvement did they make in their stone tools
(Fig. 5).? What new materials came in.? What new inventions.?
Describe the results. Discuss Middle Stone Age art. Draw cross
section of a cave with contents and describe (Fig. 9). What great
change ended the Middle Stone Age, and when .?

Section 4. Where were the earliest settlements of the Late
Stone Age known to us ? Describe them and their remains. What
new inventions came in .? Discuss carpentry with ground stone tools.
Describe the lake-villages and life in them. Describe the domestication
of grain and its social results. Describe the domestication of animals
and the two resulting methods of life. Discuss stone structures and
the life they reveal — industries, traffic, and war. What important
things did the Late Stone Age in Europe still lack.? Is civilization
possible without these things .? Where did these things first appear .?

PART II. THE ORIENT

CHAPTER II

THE STORY OF EGYPT: THE EARLIEST NILE-DWELLERS
AND THE PYRAMID AGE

Section 5. Egypt and its Earliest Inhabitants

We are to begin our study of the early Orient in Egypt. 46. Egypt of

The traveler who visits Egypt at the present day lands in a
very modern-looking harbor at Alexandria (see map, p. 36).
He is presently seated in a comfortable railway car in which
we may accompany him as he is carried rapidly across a low,
flat country stretching far away to the sunlit horizon. The
wide expanse is dotted with little villages of dark mud-brick
huts, and here and there rise groves of graceful date palms.
The landscape is carpeted with stretches of bright and vivid
green as far as the eye can see, and wandering through this
verdure is a network of irrigation canals (Fig. 23). Brown-
skinned men of slender build, with dark hair, are seen at inter-
vals along the banks of these canals, swaying up and down as
they rhythmically lift an irrigation bucket attached to a simple

Note. The tiara, or diadem, at the top of this page was found resting on the
head of an Egyptian princess of the Feudal Age as she lay in her coffin. The
diadem had been placed there nearly four thousand years ago. It is in the form
of a chaplet, or wreath, of star flowers wrought of gold and set with bright-colored
precious stones, and is one of the best examples of the work of the Egyptian gold-
smiths and jewelers (Fig. 47 and § 82). It is shown here lying on a cushion.

to-day

Ancient Times

47. Its soil,
shape, and
area

Fig. 23. An Egyptian Shadoof, the
Oldest of Well Sweeps, irrigat-
ing THE Fields

The man below stands in the water, hold-
ing his leather bucket {A). The pole {B)
of the sweep is above him, with large ball
of dried Nile mud on its lower end {C)
as a lifting weight, or counterpoise, seen
just behind the supporting post {D). This
man lifts the water into a mud basin {E).
A second man (in the middle) lifts it
from this first basin {E) to a second
basin {F) into which he is just empty-
ing his bucket; while a third man [G)
lifts the water from the middle basin {F)
to the uppermost basin {H) on the top of
the bank, where it runs off to the left into
trenches spreading over the fields. The
low water makes necessary three succes-
sive lifts (to E, to F^ to H) without ceas-
ing night and day for one hundred days

device (Fig. 23) exactly
like the well sweep of
our grandfathers in New
England. The irrigation
trenches are thus kept
full of water until the
grain ripens. This shows
us that .Egypt enjoys
no rain.

The black soil we see
from the train is unex-
celled in fertility, and it
is enriched each year by
the overflow of the river,
whose turbid waters rise
above its banks every
summer, spread far over
the flats (Fig. 24), and
stand there long enough
to deposit a very thin
layer of rich earthy
sediment. This sedi-
ment has built up the
Nile Delta which we
are now crossing. The
Delta and the valley
above, as far as the
First Cataract, contain
together over "ten thou-
sand square miles of
cultivable soil, or some-
what more than the
state of Vermont.

As our train ap-
proaches the southern

The Story of Egypt

point of the Delta we begin to see the heights on either side 48. The low
of the valley into which the narrow end of the Delta merges. Mgh^dSert ^
These heights (Figs. 24 and 69) are the plateau of the Sahara Des- Plateau
ert, through which the Nile has cut a vast, deep trench as it winds
its way northward from inner Africa. This trench, or valley, is
seldom more than thirty miles wide, while the strip of soil on each

Fig. 24. The Inundation seen from the Road to the
Pyramids of Gizeh

On the right is the road leading to the pyramids ; at the left the waters
of the inundation cover the level floor of the Nile valley. In the distance
is the desert plateau on which the pyramids stand. The trees and the
small modern village just in front of the pyramids occupy part of the
ground where once the royal city of the pyramid-builders stood (§ 75)

side of the river rarely exceeds ten miles in width. On either
edge of the soil strip one steps out of the green fields into the
sand of the desert, which has drifted down into the trench ;
or if one climbs the cliffs, forming the walls of the trench, he
stands looking out over a vast waste of rocky hills and stretches
of sand trembling in the heat of the blazing sunshine.

38 * Ancient Times

49. The As we journey on let us realize that this valley can tell us

Egyptians ^^i unbroken story of human progress such as we can find no-
where else. We look out upon the sandy margin of the desert,
where there are thousands of low, undulating mounds covering
the graves of the earliest ancestors
of the brown men we see in the
Delta fields. When we have dug out
such a grave to the bottom, we find
lying there the ancient Nile peas-
ant, surrounded by pottery jars and
stone implements (Fig. 25). There
he has been lying for over six thou-
sand years, and these stone tools,
which he used so long ago, tell us

of generations of Nile-dwellers who.

Fig. 25. Looking down ... ^u t 4. c. a r

INTO THE Grave of ^^^ ^^^ ^ate Stone Age men of

A Late Stone Age Europe, lived without the use of metal.

Egyptian Barley and split wheat ^ are some-

An oval pit 4 or 5 feet deep times found in the jars around the

(cf. Fig.38, /). The body is body (Fig. 25), for the dead were

surrounded by pottery jars ^ 1^^^ with food by those who
once containing food and ^^ "^

drink. A few small objects buried them. These and fragments
of copper have been found of linen found in such graves show
even in the earliest of such ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ j^

Egyptian graves, which - '^ rp,

therefore belong to the end and flax came mto Europe. These
of the Late Stone Age ancient Nile peasants were therefore
watering their fields of flax and grain
over six thousand years ago, just as the brown men whom the
traveler sees from the car windows to-day are still doing.

1 This split wheat is a variety which differs from our common wheat. The
kernel is split into halves. When threshed, the two halves are still held together
by the hull, and a second threshing or hard rubbing is necessary to break off
this hull and get out the tvro half kernels. Split wheat is still raised in parts of
Europe, especially for use in making starch, and is often called starch wheat.
This was the earliest variety of wheat cultivated by man. It has recently been
rediscovered growing in a wild state in Palestine. Barley and split wheat were
the two leading grains used by early man in the oriental world.

The Story of Egypt

The villages of low, mud-brick huts which flash by the car 50. Earliest
windows furnish us also with an exact picture of those vanished ^dYaxes^"
prehistoric villages, the homes of the early Nile-dwellers who
are still lying in yonder cemeteries on the desert margin. In
each such village, six to seven thousand years ago, lived a local
chieftain who controlled the irrigation trenches of the district.
To him the peasants were obliged to carry every season a share
of the grain* and flax which they gathered from their fields;
otherwise the supply of water for
their crops would be stopped,
and they would receive an un-
pleasant visit from the chief-
tain, demanding instant payment.
These were the earliest taxes.

Such transactions led to
scratching a rude picture of
the basket grain-measure and a
number of strokes on the mud
wall of the peasant's hut, in-
dicating the number of measures
of grain he had paid (cf. § 42).
The use of these purely pictorial
signs formed the earliest stage
in the process of learning to

write. Such pictorial writing is still in use among the un-
civilized peoples in our own land. Thus, the Alaskan natives
send messages in pictorial form, scratched on a piece of
wood (Fig. 26). The exact words of the message are not
represented. Fig. 26 might be read by one man, " No food
in the tent," while another might read, '' Lack of meat in the
wigwam." Such pictorial signs thus conveyed ideas without
expressing the exact words. Among our own Indians the
desire of a brave to record his personal exploits also led to
pictorial records of them (Fig. 27). It should be noticed
again that the exact words are not indicated by this record

LlA

Fig. 26. Pictorial Message

scratched on wood by

Alaskan Indians

A figure with empty hands hang-
ing down helplessly, palms down,
as an Indian gesture for uncer-
tainty, ignorance, emptiness, or
nothing, means " no." A figure
with one hand on its mouth
means " eating " or " food." It
points toward the tent, and this
means " in the tent." The whole
is a message stating, " (There is)
no food in the tent" (§51)

Ancie7it Times

52. First step
leading from
the pictorial
to the pho-
netic stage

53. Second
step leading
from the pic-
torial to the
phonetic
stage

--' y^

(Fig. 27), but the exploit is merely so suggested that it might
be put into words in a number of different ways. The early
Egyptian kings of six thousand years ago prepared strikingly

similar picture records
(Fig. 28).

But this pictorial stage,
beyond which native
American records never
passed, was not real
writing. Two steps had
to be taken before the
picture records could
become phonetic writ-
ing. Firsts each object
drawn had to gain a
fixed form, always the
same and always recog-
nized as the sign for a
particular word denot-
ing that object. Thus,
it would become a habit
that the drawing of a
loaf should always be
read "loaf," not "bread"
or " food " ; the sign for
a leaf would always be
read " leaf," not " foli-
age." ^

The second step then

naturally followed ; that

is, the leaf ^, for example, became the sign for the syllable

"leaf" wherever it might occur. By the same process \^

1 The author is of course obliged to use English words and syllables here,
and consequently also signs not existing in Egyptian but devised for this
demonstration.

Fig. 27. Pictorial Record of the

Victory of a Dakota Chief named

Running Antelope

This Dakota Indian prepared his autobi-
ography in a series of eleven drawings, of
which Fig. 27 is but one. It records how
he slew five hostile braves in a single day.
The hero, Running Antelope, with rifle in
hand, is mounted upon a horse. His shield
bears a falcon, the animal emblem of his
family, while beneath the horse is a running
antelope, which is of course intended to in-
form you of the hero's name. We see the
trail of his horse as he swept round the
copse at the left, in which were concealed
the five hostile braves whom he slew. Of
these, one figure bearing a rifle represents
all five, while four other rifles in the act
of being discharged indicate the number
of braves in the copse

The Story of Egypt

might become the sign for the syllable
'' bee " wherever found. Having thus a
means of writing the syllables " bee " and
" leaf," the next step was to put them
together, thus, \^ ^, and they would
then represent the word " belief." No-
tice, however, that in the word "belief"
the sign ^ has ceased to suggest the
idea of an insect. It now represents only
the syllable "be." That is to say, ^ has
become a phonetic sign.

If the writing of the Egyptian had
remained merely a series of pictures,
such words as " belief," " hate," " love,"
" beauty," and the like could never have
been written.^ But when a large number
of his pictures had become phonetic signs,
each representing a syllable, it was possi-
ble for the Egyptian to write any word
he knew, whether the word meant a thing
of which he could draw a picture or not.
This possession of phonetic signs was
what made real writing for the first time.
It arose among these Nile-dwellers earlier
than anywhere else in the ancient world.

Egyptian writing contained at last over
six hundred signs, many of them repre-
senting whole syllables, like ^. The
Egyptian scribe gradually learned many
groups of such syllable signs. Each group,
like 1^ ^, represented a word. Writing
thus became to him a large number of sign-
being a word ; and a series of such groups

netic signs

Fig. 28. Example

OF Egyptian Writ- 54. Advan-

ING IN THE PiCTO- ^^Sf ^^. P^^O"

RiAL Stage

Interpretation: Above
is the falcon, symbol
of a king (cf. the fal-
con on the shield of
Running Antelope in
Fig. 27), leading a hu-
man head by a cord ;
behind thehead are six
lotus leaves (each the
sign for 1000) grow-
ing out of the ground
to which the head is
attached ; below is a
single-barbed harpoon
head and a little rec-
tangle (the sign of a
lake). The whole tells
the picture story that
the falcon king led
captive six thousand
men of the land of the
Harpoon Lake (§51)

groups, each group
formed a sentence.

55. Syllable
signs and
sign-groups

1 See the word '* beauty," the last three signs in the inscription over the ship
(Fig. 41).

Ancient Times

56. Alpha-
betic signs,
or letters

Nevertheless, the Egyptian went still farther, for he finally
possessed a series of signs, each representing only a letter-^
that is, alphabetic signs, or, as we say, real letters. There were
twenty-four letters in this alphabet, which was known in Egypt

smooth breathing, like
h in "honor." As
vowel, see below

= y(in Greek times it
was used as vowel)

' guttural, pronounced
in back of throat ;
not used in English

w (later C\ was also
used ; ^ 1 both signs
as vowels, see below)

= b

= f

m (later r was also

used for m)

= 1 in late times (orig
nally r or rw)

Ch (like ch in German
"ich")

kh (like Ch in Scotch
" loch " or German
"Bach")

of slightly
"fi

S (oris

different sound from
the preceding)

■ q (in Greek times also
used for k)

dh or dsh (like j in
"jug")

Fig. 29. The Egyptian Alphabet

,Each of these letters represents a consonant. The Egyptians of course
pronounced their words with vowels as we do, but they did not write the
vowels. This will be clear by a study of Fig. 30. Just as the consonants
w and y are sometimes used as vowels in English, so three of the Egyp-
tian consonants came to be employed as vowels in Greek times. The
first letter (smooth breathing) was thus used as a or ^; the second letter
{y) as /■ ; and the fourth (w) as « or ^ (cf. Fig. 76)

long before 3000 B.C. It was thus the earliest alphabet known.
The Egyptian might then have written his language with twenty-
four alphabetic letters (Fig. 29) if the j-^^«-group habit had not
been too strong for the scribe, just as the letter-group habit is

The Story of Egypt 43

strong enough with us to-day to prevent the introduction of a
simplified phonetic system of spelling English. If we smile at
the Egyptian's cumbrous sign-groups, future generations may
as justly smile at our often absurd letter-groups.

The Egyptian soon devised a convenient equipment for writ- 57. inven-
ing. He found out that he could make an excellent paint or ing materials
ink by thickening water with a little vegetable gum and then ^"^ ^"^ P^"

' — ' A^A/VW

/WVWv

AVkAAA /WWW

Fig. 30. An Egyptian Word {A) and Two English
Words {B) and {C) written in Hieroglyphic

The first three signs in word A are ch-q-r (see Fig, 29) ; we do not know
the vowels. The word means "pauper" (literally, "hungry") ; as it de-
notes a person, the Egyptian adds a little kneeling man at the end. Before
him is another man with hand on mouth, an indication of hunger, thirst,
or speech. These two are old pictorial signs surviving from the pictorial
stage. Such pictorial signs at the end of a word have no phonetic value
and are called determinatives. B is an English word spelled for illus-
tration in hieroglyphic. The first three signs indicate the letters /-«-rf
(see Fig. 29), while the three wavy lines form the determinative for
"water"; hence p-n-d spells "pond." C is another English word in
hieroglyphic. The first three signs indicate the lettersy^w-w (see Fig. 29),
and the last sign is the determinative for " hunger " (see Fig. 30, A) ;
hence y^OT-« spells "famine." With the alphabet (Fig. 29) and the
above determinatives the student can put a number of English words
into hieroglyphic ; for example, " man " {m-n and determinative of
kneeling man, Fig. Tf>, A), "drink" {d-r-n-k and determinative of
kneeling man with hand on mouth, Fig. 30, C), "speak" {s-p-k and
same determinative), or "brook" {b-r-k and determinative for "water,"
as in " pond," Fig. 30, B)

mixing in soot from the blackened pots over his fire. Dipping
a pointed reed into this mixture, he found he could write
very well. ^-

He also learned that he could split a kind of river reed, 58. inven-
called papyrus^ into thin strips, and that he could write on iJJ^materiais:
them much better than on bits of pottery, bone, and wood. P^P®"^
Desiring a larger sheet, he hit upon the idea of pasting his

44 Ancient Times

papyrus strips together with overlapping edges. This gave him
a very thin sheet, but by pasting two such sheets together, back
to back with the grain crossing at right angles, he produced a
smooth, tough, pale-yellow paper (Fig. 58). The Egyptian had
thus made the discovery that a thin vegetable membrane offers
. the most practical surface on which to write, and the world has

Fig. 31. An Example of Egyptian Hieroglyphic (Upper
Line) and its Equivalent in the Rapid Running Hand
(Lower Line) written with Pen and Lnk on Papyrus and

CALLED HiEKATIC, THE WRITING OF AlL ORDINARY BUSINESS

The daily business of an Egyptian community of course required much
writing and thousands of records. Such writing, after it began to be
done with pen and ink on papyrus (Fig. 40), soon became very rapid.
In course of time therefore there arose a rapid or running hand in which
each hieroglyphic sign was much abbreviated. This running hand is
called hieratic. It corresponds to our handwriting, while hieroglyphic
corresponds to our print. In the above example the signs in the lower
row show clearly that they are the result of an effort to make quickly
. the signs in the hieroglyphic row above (compare sign for sign). We
must notice also that the Egyptian wrote from right to left, for this line
begins at the right and reads to the left. Vertical lines, that is, down-
ward reading, was also employed (Fig. 58). A third still more rapid and
abbreviated hand, corresponding in some ways to our shorthand, arose
still later (eighth century B.C.). It was called demotic, and one of the
versions on the Rosetta Stone (Fig. 207) is written in demotic

since discovered nothing better. In this way arose pen, ink,
and paper (see Fig. 40). All three of these devices have
descended to us from the Egyptians, and paper still bears its
ancient name, " papyros," ^ but slightly changed.

1 The change from " papyros " to " paper " is really a very slight one. For
OS is merely the Greek grammatical ending, which must be omitted in English.
This leaves us papyr as the ancestor of our word " paper," from which it differs
by only one letter. On the other Greek word for " papyrus," from which came
our word " Bible," see § 405. On the rapid or running handwriting which resulted
from using a pen on paper, see Fig. 31,

The Story of Egypt 45

The invention of writing and of a convenient system of 59. Un-
records on paper has had a greater influence in uplifting the port^ance™f
human race than any other intellectual achievement in the introduction

-' or writing

career of man. It was more important than all the battles
ever fought and all the constitutions ever devised.

The Egyptians early found it necessary to measure time. 60. Begin-
Like all other early peoples, they used the time from new calendar ^
moon to new moon as a very convenient rough measure. If a
man had agreed to pay back some borrowed grain at the end
of nine moons, and eight of them had passed, he knew that he
had one more moon in which to make the payment. But the
moon-month varies in length from twenty-nine to thirty days,
and it does not evenly divide the year. The Egyptian soon
showed himself much more practical in removing this incon-
venience than his neighbors in other lands.

He decided to use the moon no longer for dividing his year. 61. Egyptian
He would have twelve months, and he would make his months our calendar,
all of the same length, that is, thirty days each ; then he would 424j^b.c.,
celebrate five feast days, a kind of holiday week five days long, fixed date

•^ in history

at the end of the year. This gave him a year of three hundred
and sixty-five days. He was not yet enough of an astronomer
to know that every four years he ought to have a leap year of
three hundred and sixty-six days, although he discovered this
fact later (§ 741). This convenient Egyptian calendar was
devised in 4241 B.C., and its introduction is the earliest dated
event in history. Furthermore, this calendar is the very one
which has descended to us, after more than six thousand years
— unfortunately with awkward alterations in the lengths of the
months, but for these alterations the Egyptians were not
responsible (see § 968).

At the same time, as documents dated by this convenient 62. Lack of
calendar accumulated through many years, it was found that identifying
a document like a lease or a note, signed in a certain month, fn^ndonoY'
was not sufficiently dated, unless the year was also included, year-namos
The system of numbering years from some great event, like

Ancient Times

63. Lists of
year-names,
the earliest
chronicles ;
and lists of
kings with
numbered
years

1 z\ 3

our method of numbering them from the birth of Christ, was
still unknown. In order to have some means of identifying a
year when it was long past, each year was given a name after
some prominent event which had happened in it. This method
is still in use among our own North American Indians (Fig. 32),

and even among our-
selves, as people in
Chicago say " the year
of the great fire." We
find the earliest written
monuments of Egypt
dated by means of
named years (Fig. 33).
Lists of year-names
then began to be kept.
As each year-name usu-
ally mentioned some
great event (cf. Fig.
2^-^^ such lists of year-
names were thus lists
of great events, like
historic chronicles. The
earliest such year-list
in human histor)^ now
surviving, called the Pa-
lermo Stone (because
it is preserved in the
museum at Palermo,

Fig. 32. Part of a Dakota Chief's
List of Seventy-one Named Years

Lone Dog, a Dakota chief, had a buffalo
robe with seventy-one named years re-
corded on it, beginning in 1800, when he
was a child of four. A year when whoop-
ing cough was very bad was called the
" Whooping-cough Year " ; its sign shows
a human head violently coughing ! (/)
Another year, very plentiful in meteors,
was called the Meteor Year, and its
sign was a rude drawing of a falling
meteor {2). A third year saw the arrange-
ment of peace between the Dakotas and
the Crows ; its sign was therefore two
Indians, with differing style of hair, indi-
cating the two different tribes, exchanging
pipes of peace (j). Thus, instead of say-
ing, as we do, that a thing happened in
the year 18 13, the Indian said it happened
in the Whooping-cough Year, and by
examining his table of years he could tell

how far back that year was , n , . ,

Sicily), begins about

3400 B.C., and contained when complete the names of some

seven hundred years, ending about 2700 B.C. Later the Egyp

tians found it more convenient to number the years of each

king's reign, and then to date events in the first year of King

So-and-so or the tenth year of King So-and-so. They finally

had lists of past kings, covering many centuries.

The Story of Egypt

Meantime the Egyptians were making great progress in other 64. Discov

matters. It was probably in the peninsula of Sinai (see map,
p. 36) that some Egyptian, wan-
dering thither, once happened to
bank his camp fire with pieces of
copper ore lying on the ground
about the camp. The charcoal
of his wood fire mingled with the
hot fragments of ore piled around
to shield the fire, and thus the
ore was " reduced," as the miner
says ; that is, the copper in me-
tallic form was released from
the lumps of ore. Next morn-
ing, as the Egyptian stirred the
embers, he discovered a few
glittering globules, now hardened
into beads of metal. He drew
them forth and turned them
admiringly as they glittered in
the morning sunshine. Before
long, as the experience was re-
peated, he discovered whence
these strange shining beads had
come. He produced more of
them, at first only to be worn as
ornaments by the women. Then
he learned to cast the metal into
a blade, to replace the flint knife
which he carried in his girdle.

Without knowing it this man
stood at the dawning of a new

ery of metal
(at least
4000 B.C.)

Fig. 33. Early Egyptian

Date by the Name of the

Year

This large alabaster jar, now in
the Philadelphia Museum, was
presented by a primitive king of
Egypt to a Sun-temple and bears
the date of the presentation in
the words, " Year of Fighting
and Smiting the Northland,"
which is the name of the year,
given to it because of the victory
over the Northland (the Delta)
gained in that year. A long
series of such year-names fur-
nishes us a valuable record of
great events, by which the years
were named (§ 63)

65. The

dawning of
the Age of

era, the Age of Metal ; and the little bead of. shining copper Metal
which he drew from the ashes, if this Egyptian wanderer could
have seen it, might have reflected to him a vision of gteel

Ancient Times

66. The Nile
a vast histori-
cal volume

67. The first
glimpse of
the pyramids

buildings, Brooklyn bridges, huge factories roaring with the noise
of thousands of machines of metal, and vast stretches of steel
roads along which thunder hosts of rushing locomotives. For
these things of our modern world, and all they signify, would
never have come to pass but for the little bead of metal which
the wondering Egyptian held in his hand for the first time on
that eventful day so long ago. Since the discovery of fire over
fifty thousand years earlier (§ 8), man had made no conquest
of the things of the earth which could compare in importance
with this discovery of metal.

At this point we realize that we have followed early man out
of the Stone Age (where we left him in Europe) into a civili-
zation possessed of metal, writing, and government. We also
begin to see that dry and rainless Egypt furnishes the conditions
for the preservation of such plentiful remains of early man as
to make this valley an enormous storehouse of his ancient works
and records. These remains are the only link connecting pre-
historic man with the historic age of written documents, which
we are now to study as we make the voyage up the Nile. We
shall read the monuments along the great river like a vast his-
torical volume, whose pages will tell us, age after age, the fasci-
nating story of ancient man and all that he achieved here so
many thousands of years ago, after his discovery of metals
and his invention of writing.

Such are the thoughts which occupy the mind of the well-
informed traveler as his train carries him southward across the
Delta. Perhaps he is pondering on the possible results which
the Egyptians were to achieve as he sees them in imagination
throwing away their flint chisels and replacing them with those
of copper. The train rounds a bend, and through an opening in
the palms he is fairly blinded by a burst of blazing sunshine
from the western desert, in the midst of which he discovers a
group of noble pyramids rising above the glare of the sands.
It is his first glimpse of the great pyramids of Gizeh (Fig. 24),
and it tells him better than any printed page what the Egyptian

The Stor^> of Egypt 49

builders with the copper chisel in their hands could do. A few
minutes later his train is moving among the modern buildings
of Cairo, and the very next day will surely find him taking the
seven-mile drive from Cairo out to Gizeh.

Section 6. The Pyramid Age (about 3000 to
2500 B.C.)

No traveler ever forgets the first drive from Cairo to the 68. The pyra-
pyramids of Gizeh, as he sees their giant forms rising higher tombs
and higher above the crest of the western desert (Fig. 24).
A thousand questions arise in the visitor's mind. He has read
that these vast buildings he is approaching are tombs, in which

Fig. 34. Winged Sun-Disk, a Symbol of the Sun-god

In this form the Sun-god was believed to be a falcon flying across the

sky. We shall later see how the other nations of the Orient in Asia

also adopted this Egyptian symbol (see Figs. 102, 117, and 129)

the kings of Egypt were buried. Such mighty buildings reveal
many things about the men who built them. In the first place,
these tombs show that the Egyptians believed in a life after
death, and that to obtain such life it was necessary to preserve
the body from destruction. They built these tombs to shelter
and protect the body after death. From this belief came also the
practice of embalmment, by which the body was preserved as
a mummy (Fig. 72). It was then placed in the great ^tomb, in
a small room deep under the pyramid masonry. Other tombs
of masonry, much smaller in size, cluster about the pyramids in
great numbers (Figs. 39 and 42). Here were buried the relatives
of the king, and the great men of his court, who assisted him
in the government of the land.

Ancient Times

69. The gods
of Egypt: Re
and Osiris

70. The prog-
ress of the
Egyptians be-
fore they
built stone
masonry

The Egyptians had many gods, but there were two whom
they worshiped above all others. The sun, which shines so
gloriously in the cloudless Egyptian sky, was their greatest god,
and their most splendid temples were erected for his worship.
Indeed, the pyramid is a symbol sacred to the Sun-god. (See
another symbol in Fig. 34.) They called him Re (pronounced
ray). The other great power which they revered was the shining
Nile. The great river and the fertile soil he refreshes, and the
green life which he brings forth — all these the Egyptian thought
of together as a single god, Osiris, the imperishable life of the

earth, which revives and fades
every year with the changes
of the seasons (see Fig. 35).
It was a beautiful thought to
the Egyptian that this same
life-giving power which fur-
nished him his food in this
world would care for him also
in the 7iext^ when his body
lay out yonder in the great
cemetery of Gizeh, which we
are approaching.^
But this vast cemetery of Gizeh tells us of many other things
besides the religion of the Egyptians. As we look up at the
colossal pyramids behind the Sphinx (Fig. 54) we can hardly
grasp the fact of the enormous forward stride taken by the
Egyptians since the days when they used to be buried with
their flint knives in a pit scooped out on the margin of the
desert (Fig. 25). It was the use of metal which since then had
carried them so far. That Egyptian in Sinai who noticed the
first bit of metal (§ 65) lived over a thousand years before

1 There were many other Egyptian gods whose earthly symbols were animals,
but. the animal worship usually attributed to Egypt was a degeneration belonging
to the latest age. The animals were not gods in this early time, but only symbols
of the divine beings, just as the winged sun-disk was a symbol of the Sun-god
(Fig. 34).

Fig. 35. The Dead Osiris
embalmed

From the body of the god stalks
of grain have sprouted, a symbol
suggesting the imperishable life of
the god, by means of which he
survived death (§ 69)

The Story of Egypt

these pyramids were built. He was buried in a pit like that
of the earliest Egyptian peasant (Figs. 25 and 38, z).

It was a long time before the possession of metal resulted in
copper tools which made possible great architecture in stone.
Not more than a hundred and fifty years before the Great

Fig. 36. The Oldest Surviving Building of Stone
Masonry (not long after 3000 b.c.)

This terraced building, often called the step-pyramid, was the tomb of
King Zoser (early thirtieth century B.C.). It is about 200 feet high,
and is composed of a series of buildings like those in Fig. 42, placed
one on top of the other. It thus formed a tapering building (Fig. 38,5),
out of which developed the pyramid form at the close of the thirtieth
century (on the architect see Fig. 37 and § 71)

Pyramid of Gizeh, the Egyptians were still building the tombs
of their kings out of sun-baked brick. Such a royal tomb was
at first merely a chamber in the ground, roofed with wood
and covered with a mound of sand and gravel (Fig. 38, 2).

Then some skillful workman among them found out that he
could use his copper tools to cut square blocks of limestone
and line the chamber with these blocks in place of the soft

Ancient Times

71. The

earliest stone
building, and
Imhotep, the
first architect
in stone

72. From the
earliest stone
masonry to
the Great
Pyramid — a
century and a
half

bricks. So far as we know, this was the first piece of stone
masonry ever put together (Fig. 38, j). It can hardly be called
a building, for, like a cellar wall, it was all below ground.

The next step, a real building above-
ground, was still of brick (Fig. 38, 4).
It was soon followed by a terraced
structure of stone for the king's
tomb, the earliest surviving building
of stone masonry ever erected. We
know the name of the royal archi-
tect, Imhotep, the earliest architect to
put up a building of stone masonry.
He flourished just after 3000 B.C.,
and his name deserves far greater
fame and respect than those of the
early kings or conquerors them-
selves (Fig. 37).

The erection of Imhotep's ter-
raced building was but a step toward
the construction of a pyramid. A
generation later, so rapid was the
progress, the king's architects were
building the Great Pyramid of Gizeh
(2900 B.C.). From the earliest piece
of stone masonry (Fig. 38, j) to the
construction of the Great Pyramid
(Fig. 38, 7), less than a century and
a half elapsed. Most of this advance
was made during the thirtieth cen-
tury B.C., that is, between 3000 and
2900 B.C. (Fig. 38). Such rapid prog-
ress in control of mechanical power
can be found in no other period of
the world's history until the nine-
teenth century.

Fig. 37. Imhotep the
Wise, the Earliest Ar-
chitect OF Stone Build-
ings (nearly 3000 B.C.)

This architect of the earli-
est surviving building of
stone (Fig. 36) was grand
vizier at the court of King
Zoser. He was also a great
physician and wise man, and
later on he was thought to be
a god, until he was finally re-
garded as Asclepius (^scu-
lapius), the god of medicine
among the Greeks and
Romans. This little portrait
of him is a bronze statuette,
now in the Berlin Museum,
and shows him reading from
a papyrus roll

The Story of Egypt 5 3

It helps us to realize this progress when we know that the 73. The vast
Great Pyramid covers thirteen acres. It is a solid mass of Great Pyra-
masonry containing 2,300,000 blocks of limestone, each weigh- ™^
ing on an average two and a half tons ; that is, each block is as
heavy as a large wagonload of coal. The sides of the pyramid
at the base are 755 feet long,^ that is, about a block and three
quarters (counting twelve city blocks to a mile), and the build-
ing was nearly 500 feet high. An ancient story tells us that a
hundred thousand men were working on this royal tomb for
twenty years, and we can well believe it (Fig. 39).

We perceive at once that it must have required a very 74. Govern-
skillful ruler and a great body of officials to manage and to PyJ^mid Age
feed a hundred thousand workmen around this great building.
The king who .controlled such vast undertakings was no longer
a local chieftain (§ 50), but he now ruled a united Egypt, the
earliest great unified nation, comprising several millions of
people. The king was so reverenced that the people did not
mention him by name, but instead they spoke of the palace
in which Jie lived, that is, the " Great House," or, in Egyptian,
'' Pharaoh." He had his local officials collecting taxes all over
Egypt (Fig. 40). It was also their business to try the law cases
which arose, and every judge had before him the written law,^
which bade him judge justly.

The king's huge central offices, occupying low, sun-baked- '
brick buildings, sheltered an army of clerks with their reed
pens and their rolls of papyrus (Fig. 40), keeping the king's
records and accounts. The taxes received from the people
here were not in money, for coined money did not yet exist.
Payments were made in produce — grain, live stock, wine, honey,
linen, and the like. With the exception of the cattle, these had
to be stored in granaries and storehouses, a vast group of
which formed the treasury of the king.

1 It should be remembered that the pyramid is solid. Compare the length of
the Colosseum (about 600 feet), which is built around a hollow inclosure.

2 This Egyptian code of laws has unfortunately been lost.

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Fig. 39. Restoration of the Great Pyramids and Other

Tomb-Monuments in the Ancient Cemetery of Gizeh,

Egypt. (After Hoelscher)

These royal tomb's (pyramids) belonged to the leading kings of the
Fourth Dynasty, the early part {2900-2750 B.C.) of the Pyramid Age
(about 3000 to 2500 B.C.). The Great Pyramid, the tomb of King Khufu
(Greek, Cheops), is on the right (see § 73). Next in size is that of King
Khafre (Greek, Chephren) (Fig. 54), on the left. On the east side (front)
of each pyramid is a temple (see also Fig. 56), where the food, drink,
and clothing were placed for the use of the dead king. These temples,
like the pyramids, were built on the desert plateau above, while the
royal town was in the valley below (on the right) (see § 75 and Fig. 24).
For convenience, therefore, the temple was connected with the town
below by a covered gallery, or corridor, of stone, seen here descending
in a straight line from the temple of King Khafre and terminating below,
just beside the Sphinx, in a large oblong building of stone, called a
valley-temple. It was a splendid structure of granite (Fig. 55), serving
not only as a temple but also as the entrance to the great corridor from
the royal city. The pyramids are surrounded by the tombs of the queens
and the great lords of the age (see Fig. 42). At the lower left-hand
corner is an unfinished pyramid, showing the inclined ascents up which
the stone blocks were dragged. These ascents (called ramps) were
built of sun-baked brick and were removed after the pyramid was
finished. (This scene will be found in color in Outlines of European
History, Part I, Plate I)

The Story of Egypt

The villas and gardens of the officials who assisted the king 75. The
in all this business of government formed a large part of the ™^^ ^^ ^
royal city (Fig. 51). The chief quarter of the city, however, was
occupied by the palace of the king and the luxurious parks and
gardens which surrounded it. Thus the palace and its grounds,
the official villas, and offices of the government made up the
capital of Egypt, the royal city which extended along the foot of
the pyramid ceme-
tery and stretched
far away over the
low plain, of which
there is a fine view
from the summit
of the pyramid.
But the city was
all built of sun-
baked brick and
wood, and it has
therefore vanished.
It extended far
southward from
Gizeh and was later
called Memphis.

The city of the
dead, — the pyra-
mids and the tombs
clustering around

them (Figs. 39 and 42), — being built of stone, has fortunately
proved more durable. Hence it is that from the summit of
the Great Pyramid there is a grand view southward, down
a straggling but imposing line of pyramids rising dimly as far
as one can see on the southern- horizon. Each pyramid was
a royal tomb, and for us each such tomb means that a king
lived, ruled, and died. The line is over sixty miles long, and
its oldest pyramids represent the first great age of Egyptian

Fig. 40. Collection of Taxes by Local
Treasury Officials in the Pyramid Age

The clerks and scribes are in two rows at the
right. All squat, and write on the raised right
knee, except the two who have desks. The left
hand holds a sheet of papyrus ; the right, the
pen. The taxpayers are delinquent village offi-
cers brought in (at the left) by deputies with
staves under their arms. The inscription above
reads, '' Seizing the town rulers for a reckon-
ing." The clerks had records of the taxpayers'
names and how much they owed ; and they
issued receipts when the taxes were paid, just
as at the present day. Such arrangements did
not arise in Europe until far down in the Roman
Empire (§§ 1026- 1027)

76. Length
and date of
the Pyramid
Age

Ancient Times

77. Northern
commerce
and earliest
seagoing
ships

civilization after the land was united under one king.^ We may
call it the Pyramid Age, and it lasted about five hundred years,
from 3000 to 2500 B.C.

In the Pyramid Kg& the Pharaoh was already powerful
enough to begin seeking wealth beyond the boundaries of
Egypt. We even possess painted reliefs (Fig. 41) showing

Fig, 41. Earliest Representation of a Seagoing Ship
(Twenty-eighth Century b.c.)

The scene is carved on the wall of a temple (Fig. 56). The people are
all bowing to the king whose figure (now lost) stood on shore (at the
left), and they salute him with the words written in a line of hieroglyphs
above, meaning : " Hail to thee ! O Sahure [the king's name], thou god
of the living ! We behold thy beauty." Some of these men are bearded
Phoenician prisoners brought by this Egyptian ship which with seven
others, making a fleet of eight vessels, had therefore crossed the east
end of the Mediterranean and returned. The big double mast is un-
shipped and lies on supports rising by the three steering oars in the
stern. The model and ornaments of these earliest-known ships spread
in later times to ships found in all waters from Italy to India

us the ships which he dared to send beyond the shelter of
the Nile mouths far across the end of the Mediterranean to
the coast of Phoenicia (see map, p. 100). This was in the

1 For a long time before this there had been little kingdoms scattered up and
down the valley. These finally merged into two leading kingdoms — one includ-
ing the Delta, and the other the valley south of it. They long fought together
(see Fig. 33), until they were finally united into one kingdom, under a single
king. The first king to establish this union permanently was Menes, who united
Egypt under his rule about 3400 b. c. But it was not until four centuries or more
after Menes that the united kingdom became powerful and wealthy enough to
build these royal pyramid-tombs, marking fpr us the first great age of Egyptian
civilization,

The Story of Egypt

middle of the twenty-eighth century B.C., and this relief
(Fig. 41) contains the oldest known representation of a sea-
going ship. Yet at that time the Pharaoh had already been
carrying on such over-sea commerce for centuries.

Besides maintaining his copper mines in Sinai, the king was 78. Southern
also already sending caravans of donkeys far up the Nile into and Tadkst
the Sudan to traffic with the blacks of the south, and to bring "h^led'seT
back ebony, ivory, ostrich feathers, and fragrant gums. The

Fig. 42. Restoration of a Group of Tombs of the Nobles
IN the Pyramid Age

These tombs are grouped about the royal pyramids, as seen in Fig. 39.
They are sometimes of vast size. The square openings in the top are
shafts leading down to the burial chambers in the native rock far below
the tomb structures. These structures are of stone, surrounding a heap
of sand and gravel inside (Fig. 38, 4). The chapel room is in the east
side, of which the door can be seen in the front of each tomb. The
reliefs shown in Figs. 43-48 adorn the inside walls of these chapels

officials who conducted these caravans were the earliest ex-
plorers of inner Africa, and in their tombs at the First Cataract
they have left interesting records of their exciting adventures
among the wild tribes of the south — adventures in which some
of them lost their lives.^ The Pharaoh was also sending his
ships on expeditions to a land called Punt, at the south end of
the Red Sea (see map, p. 36), to procure the same products and
to bring them back by water.

1 The teacher will find it of interest to read these records to the class.
the author's Ancient Records of Egypt, Vol. I^ pp. 325-336, 350-374.

See

Ancient Times

79. The A stroll among the tombs clustering so thickly around the

of"d?e^Pyr? pyramids of Gizeh (Fig. 42) is almost like a walk among the
JP^^S^ ' ^^^ ^"^y communities which flourished in this populous valley in
reveal the days of the pyramid-builders. We find the door of every

tomb standing open (Fig. 42), and there is nothing to prevent

Fig. 43. Relief Scene from the Chapel of a Noble's
Tomb (Fig. 42) in the Pyramid Age

The tall figure of the noble stands at the right. He is inspecting three
lines of cattle and a line of fowl brought before him. Note the two
scribes who head the two middle rows. Each is writing with pen on a
sheet of papyrus, and one carries two pens behind his ear. Such
reliefs after being carved were colored in bright hues by the painter

(see § 93)

our entrance. We stand in an oblong room with walls of stone
masonry. This is a chapel chamber, to which the Egyptian
believed the dead man buried beneath the tomb might return
every day. Here he would find food and drink left for him
daily by his relatives. He would also find the stone walls of

The Story of Egypt

this room covered from floor to ceiling with carved scenes, beau-
tifully painted, picturing the daily life on a great estate (Figs. 40,
43-48, and 50). The place is now silent and deserted, or if we
hear the voices of the donkey boys talking outside, they are
speaking Arabic, for the ancient Egyptian language of the men
who built these tombs so many thousand years ago is no longer
spoken. But everywhere, in bright and charming colors, we
see pictures of the life — the days of toil and pleasure — which
these men of nearly five thousand years ago actually lived.

Fig. 44. Plowing and Sowing in the Pyramid Age

There are two plowmen, one driving the oxen and one holding the
plow. This wooden plow was derived from such a wooden hoe as we
see in use in front of the oxen. The handle of the hoe, here grasped
by the user, was lengthened so that oxen might be yoked to it. The
hoe handle thus became the beam of a plow. Two short handles were
then attached by which the plowman behind could guide it (§ 33).
The man with the hoe breaks up the clods left by the plow, and in*
front of him is the sower, scattering the seed from the curious sack he
carries before him. At the left is a scribe of the estate. The hiero-
glyphs at the top in all such scenes explain what is going on. Scene
from the chapel of a noble's tomb (Fig. 42)

Dominating all these scenes on the walls is the tall form of 80. Agricul-
the noble (Fig, 43), the lord of the estate, who was buried in
this tomb. He stands looking out over his fields and inspecting
the work going on there. These fields (Fig. 44) are the oldest
scene of agriculture known to us. Here, too, are the herds, long
lines of sleek, fat cattle grazing in the pasture, while the milch
cows are led up and tied to be milked (Figs. 43 and 45). These
cattle are also beasts of burden ; we notice the oxen draw-
ing the plow. But we find no horses in these tombs of the

ture and
cattle raising ;
beasts of
burden

Ancient Times

8i. The cofh
porsmith

Fig. 45. Peasant milking in the
Pyramid Age

The cow is restive and the ancient cow-
herd has tied her hind legs. Behind her
another man is holding her calf, which
rears and plunges in the effort to reach
the milk. Scene from the chapel of a
noble's tomb (Fig. 42)

Pyramid Age, for the horse was still unknown to the Egyptian.

The donkey, however, is everywhere, and it would be impossible

to harvest the grain
without him (Fig. 46).
On the next wall we
find again the tall figure
of the noble overseeing
the booths and yards
where the craftsmen of
his estate are working.
Yonder is the smith.
He has never heard of
his ancestor who picked
up the first bead of

copper, over a thousand years earlier (§ 65). Much progress

has been made since that day. This man could make excellent

copper tools of all sorts; but the tool which demanded the

greatest skill was the long,

flat ripsaw, which the smith

knew how to hammer into

shape out of a broad strip of

copper five or six feet long.

Such a saw may be seen in

use in Fig. 50. Besides this

he knew how to make one

that would saw great blocks

of stone for the ' pyramids.

Moreover, this coppersmith

was already able to deliver

orders of considerable size.

We know that he could fur-
nish thirteen hundred feet

(about a quarter of a mile) of copper drain piping for a pyra-
mid temple (Fig. 56), where recent excavation has found it —

the earliest plumbing known to us.

Fig. 46. Donkey carrying a

Load of Grain Sheaves in

the Pyramid Age

The foal accompanies its mother
while at work. Scene from the
chapel of a noble's tomb (Fig. 42)

The Story of Egypt

Fig. 47.

Goldsmith's Workshop in the
Pyramid Age .

On the same wall we see the lapidary holding up for the
noble's admiration splendid stone bowls cut from diorite.
Although this kind of stone is as hard as steel, the bowl is
ground to such thinness that the sunlight glows through its
dark gray sides (Fig. 134). Other workmen are cutting and
grinding tiny pieces of beautiful blue turquoise. These pieces
they inlay with remarkable accuracy into recesses in the sur-
face of a magnificent golden vase just made ready by the
goldsmith (Plate I).
The booth of the
goldsmith is filled
with workmen and
apprentices (Fig.
47). They hammer
and cast, solder and
fit together richly
wrought jewelry
which is hardly sur-
passed by the work
of the best gold-
smiths and jewelers
of to-day.

In the next space
on this wall we find
the potter no longer
building up his jars
and bowls with his fingers alone, as in the Stone Age. He now
sits before a small horizontal ivheel (Fig. 48), upon which he
deftly shapes the whirling vessel. When the soft clay vessels
are ready, they are no longer unevenly burned in an open fire,
as among the Late Stone Age potters in the Swiss lake-villages
(Fig. 1 6) ; but here in the Egyptian potter's yard are long rows
of dosed furnaces of clay as tall as a man. When the pottery
is packed in these furnaces it is burned evenly, because it is
protected from the wind (Fig. 48). On the tomb wall we also

82. The lapi-
dary, gold-
smith, and
jeweler

Upper row. At left the chief goldsmith weighs
precious stones and a scribe records them;
next, six men with blowpipes blow the fire in a
small clay furnace ; next, a workman pours out
molten metal or paste ; at the right end four
men are beating gold leaf. Middle row. Pieces
of finished jewelry and a jewel-box in the middle.
Lower row. Workmen seated at low benches
are putting together and engraving pieces of
jewelry. Several of these men are dwarfs. (See
the finished work on Plate I, and headpiece, p. 35)

83. The pot-
ter's wheel
and furnace ;
the earliest
glass

Ancient Times

84. The

weavers and
tapestry-
makers

see the craftsman making glass. This art the Egyptians had
discovered centuries earlier. The glass was spread on tiles in
gorgeous glazes for adorning house and palace walls (Plate II),
and later it was wrought into exquisite many-colored glass
bottles and vases, which were widely exported (Fig. 49).

Yonder the weaving women draw forth from the loom a
gossamer fabric of linen. The picture would naturally give us
no idea of its fineness, but fortunately pieces of it have sur-
vived, wrapped around the mummy of a king of this age.

Fig. 48. Potter's Wheel and Furnaces

The potter crouches before his horizontal wheel, which is like a flat
round plate, on which rests the jar being shaped. The potter keeps
the wheel whirling with one hand, and with the other he shapes the soft
clay jar as it wjbirls on the wheel. This wheel is the ancestor of our
lathe. Two men (at the right end) are just filling a tall furnace with
bowls and jars, and another furnace (at the -left) is already very hot,
for the man stirring the fire is holding up his hand to shield his face
from the heat

85. Paper-
makers

These specimens of royal linen are so fine that it requires a
magnifying glass to distinguish them from silk, and the best
work of the modern machine loom is coarse in comparison
with this fabric of the ancient Egyptian hand loom. At one
loom a lovely tapestry is being made, for these weavers of
Egypt furnished the earliest-known specimens of such work,
to be hung on the walls of the Pharaoh's palace or stretched
out to shade the roof garden of the noble's villa (Fig. 51).

In the next space on the wall we find huge bundles of
papyrus reeds, which barelegged men are gathering along the

The Story of Egypt

edge of the Nile marsh. These reeds furnish piles of pale
yellow paper in long narrow sheets (§ 58). The ships which we
have followed on the Mediterranean (Fig. 41) will in course
of time add bales of this Nile paper to their cargoes, and

carry it to the

European world.

We seem almost
to hear the hubbub
of hammers and
mauls as we ap-
proach the next sec-
tion of wall, where
we find the ship-
builders and cabi-
netmakers. Here
is a long line of
curving hulls, with
workmen swarming
over them like ants,
fitting together the
earliest seagoing
ships (Fig. 41).
Beside them are
the busy cabinet-
makers (Fig. 50),
fashioning luxuri-
ous furniture for the noble*s villa. The finished chairs and
couches for the king or the rich are overlaid with gold and
silver, inlaid with ebony and ivory, and upholstered with soft
leathern cushions (Fig. 73).

As we look back over these painted chapel walls we see
that the tombs of Gizeh have told us a very vivid story of how
these early men learned to make for themselves the things they
needed. We should notice how many more such things these
men of the Nile could now make than the Stone Age men, who

86. Ship-
builders, car
penters, and
cabinet-
makers

ABC

Fig. 49. Egyptian Glass Bottles and

THEIR Distribution from Babylonia to

Ancient Italy

A, as found in ancient Egypt ; B, as found in
ancient Babylonia ; C, as found in ancient Italy.
The shape is in imitation of Egyptian perfume
bottles cut out of alabaster. This shape became
the common form for perfume and toilet bottles
among the Mediterranean peoples in later times
(see Fig. 170)

Anctenl Times

were still living in the lake-villages and other towns of Europe
(Fig. 14) at the very time these tomb-chapels were built.
88. River It is easy to picture the bright, sunny river in those ancient

the market' days, alive with boats and barges (often depicted on these
fn^godds^dr- ^^^'^) moving hither and thither, bearing the products of all
cuiation of these industries, to be carried to the treasury of the Pharaoh

precious "^

metal as taxcs or to the market of the town to be bartered for other

goods. Here on the wall is the market place itself. We can
watch the cobbler offering the baker a pair of sandals as

13/ \f

Fig. 50. Cabinetmakers in the Pyramid Age

At the left a man is cutting with a chisel which he taps with a mallet ;
next, a man " rips " a board with a copper saw ; next, two men are
finishing off a couch, and at the right a man is drilling a hole with a
bow-drill. Scene from the chapel of a noble's tomb (Fig 42). Com-
pare a finished chair belonging to a wealthy noble of the Empire
which was placed in his tomb and thus preserved (Fig. 73)

payment for a cake, or the carpenter's wife giving the fisherman
a little wooden box to pay for a fish ; while the potter's wife
proffers the apothecary two bowls fresh from the potter's fur-
nace in exchange for a jar of fragrant ointment. We see, there-
fore, that the people have no coined money to use, and that in
the market place trade is actual exchange of goods. Such is the
business of the common people. If we could see the large
transactions in the palace, we would find there heavy rings
of gold of a standard weight, which circulated like money.
Rings of copper also served the same purpose. Such rings
were the forerunners of coin (§ 458).

The Story of Egypt 6y

These people in the gayly painted picture of the market 89. Three
place on the chapel wall were the common folk of Egypt in sodety hi the
the Pyramid Age. Some of them were free men, following Pyam^d Age
their own business or industry. Others were slaves, working
the fields on the great estates. Neither of these humble
classes owned any land. Over them were the landowners,
the Pharaoh and his great lords and officials, like the owner
of this tomb (Fig. 42). We know many more of them by
name, and a walk through this cemetery would enable us to
make a directory of the wealthy quarter of the royal city under
the kings who were buried in these pyramids of Gizeh. We
know the grand viziers and the chief treasurers, the chief judges
and the architects, the chamberlains and marshals of the palace,
and so on. We can even visit the tomb of the architect who
built the Great Pyramid of Gizeh for Khufu.

We can observe with what pleasure these nobles and officials 90. The
presided over this busy industrial and social life of the Nile pyramid Age
valley in the Pyramid Age. Here on this chapel wall again i" his home
we see its owner seated at ease in his palanquin, a luxurious
wheel-less carriage borne upon the shoulders of slaves, as he
returns from the inspection of his estate where we have been
following him. His bearers carry him into the shady garden
before his house (Fig. 51), where they set down the palanquin
and cease their song.^ His wife advances at once to greet him.
Her place is always at his side ; she is his sole wife, held in
all honor, and enjoys every righ't which belongs to her husband.
This garden is the noble's paradise. Here he may recline for an
hour of leisure with his family and friends, playing at draughts,
listening to the music of harp, pipe, and lute, watching his
women in the slow and stately dances of the time, while his
children are sporting about among the arbors, splashing in the
pool as they chase the fish, playing with ball, doll, and jumping
jack, or teasing the tame monkey which takes refuge under
their father's ivory-legged stool.

1 Recorded, with other songs, on the tomb-chapel walls.

68 Ancient History

Section 7. Art and Architecture in the
Pyramid Age

91. The The noble drops one hand idly upon the head of his favorite

hound, and with the other beckons to the chief gardener and
gives directions regarding the new pomegranates which he
wishes to try for dinner. The house (Fig. 51) where this
dinner awaits him is large an4 commodious, built of sun-dried
brick and wood. Light and airy, as suits the climate, we find
that it has many latticed windows on all sides. The walls of
the living rooms are scarcely more than a frame to support
gayly colored hangings (§84) which can be let down as a pro-
tection against winds and sand storms when necessary. These
give the house a very bright and cheerful aspect. The house is
a work of art, and we discern in it how naturally the Egyptian
demanded beauty in his surroundings. This he secured by
making all his useful things beautiful.

Beauty surrounds us on every hand as we follow him in to
his dinner. The lotus blossoms on the handle of his carved
spoon, and his wine sparkles in the deep blue calyx of the
same flower, which forms the bowl of his wineglass. The
muscular limbs of the lion or the ox, beautifully carved in
ivory, support the chair in which he sits or the couch where
he reclines. The painted ceiling over his head is a blue and
starry heaven resting upon palm-trunk columns (Fig. 56), each
crowned with its graceful tuft of drooping foliage carved in
wood and colored in the dark green of the living tree ; or
columns in the form of lotus stalks rise from the floor as if
to support the azure ceiling upon their swaying blossoms.
Doves and butterflies, exquisitely painted, flit across this in-
door sky. Beneath our feet we find the pavement of the
dining hall carpeted in paintings picturing everywhere the
deep, green of disheveled marsh grasses, with gleaming water
between and fish gliding among the swaying reeds. Around
the margin, leaping among the rushes, we see the wild ox

The Story of Egypt

Fig. 51. Villa of an Egyptian Noble

The garden is inclosed with a high wall. There are pools on either

side as one enters, and a long arbor extends down the middle. The

house at the rear, embowered in trees, is crowned by a rcTof garden

shaded with awnings of tapestry (see § 84)

tossing his head at the birds twittering on the nodding rush
tops, as they vainly strive to frighten away the stealthy weasel
creeping up to plunder their nests.

The Egyptians could not have left us the beautifully painted
reliefs in the tomb-chapels we visited unless they had possessed

Ancient Times

93. Painting
and relief
in tombs and
temples

94. Portrait
sculpture

95. Architec-
ture : the
earliest
clerestory

trained artists. Indeed, we can find, in one corner of the wall,
the picture of the artist who painted the walls in one of the
chapels, where he has represented himself enjoying a plentiful
feast among other people of the estate. His drawings all around
us show that he has not been able to overcome all the difficul-
ties of depicting, on a flat surface, objects having thickness and
roundness. Animal figures are drawn, however, with great
lifelikeness (Figs. 43-46), but perspective is almost entirely
unknown to him, and objects in the background or distance
are drawn of almost the same size as those in front.

The portrait sculptor was the greatest artist of this age.
His statues were carved in stone or wood, and colored in the
hues of life ; the eyes were inlaid with rock crystal, and they
still shine with the gleam of life (Fig. 53). More lifelike por-
traits have never been produced by any age, although they are
the earliest portraits in the history of art. Such statues of the
kings are often superb (Fig. 52). They were set up in the
Pharaoh's pyramid temple (Figs. 55 and 56). In size the most
rernarkable statue of the Pyramid Age is the Great Sphinx,
which stands here in this cemetery of Gizeh (Fig. 54). The
head is a portrait of Khafre, the king who built the second
pyramid of Gizeh (Fig. 54), and was carved from a promon-
tory of rock which overlooked the royal city. It is the largest
portrait ever wrought.

The massive granite piers and walls (Fig. 55) of Khafre's
valley temple (Fig. 39) beside the Sphinx reveal to us the
impressive architecture in stone which the men of the early
part of the Pyramid Age were designing. This splendid hall
(Fig. 55) was lighted by a series of oblique slits, which are
really low roof windows. They occupied the difference in level
between a higher roof over the middle aisle of the hall and
a lower roof on each side of the middle (Fig. 271, i). Such
an arrangement of roof windows, called a clerestory {clear-
story), later passed over to Greece and Rome, and finally sug-
gested the nave of the Christian basilica church or cathedral

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The Story of Egypt

(Fig. 271). And
mid Age was the
architecture as it
developed in Eu-
rope three thousand
five hundred years
later.

But before a
century had passed,
such massive gran-
deur as we find in
this great hall of
Khafre (Fig. 55)
was being trans-
formed by the
Egyptian's grow-
ing sense of grace
and beauty. In-
stead of ponder-
ous square piers or
pillars the archi-
tects now began
to erect light and
graceful round col-
umns with beauti-
ful capitals ; these
were ranged in
long rows, the
earliest colonnades
(Fig. 56), dating
from the twenty-
eighth century b. c.
They were pecul-
iar to Egypt, for
when our study

so this granite hall of Khafre in the Pyra-
ancestor of the leading form of Christian

Fig. $^. Restoration of the Clere-
story Hall in the Valley-Temple of
Khafre (cf. Fig. 39). (After Hoelscher)

The roof of this hall was supported on two rows
of huge stone piers (see Fig. 271, /), each a
single block of polished granite weighing 22
tons. This view shows only one row of the
piers, the other being out of range at the right.
At the left above, the light streams in obliquely
from the very low clerestory windows (§ 95).
Compare the cross section (Fig. 271, /). The
statues shown here had been thrown by un-
known enemies into a well in a connected hall,
where they were found sixty years ago (see
head of the finest in Fig. 52)

96. Earliest
colonnades

Ancient Times

Fig. 56. Colonnades in the Court of a Pyramid-Temple
(Twenty-eighth Century b.c). (After Borchardt)

Notice the pyramid rising behind the temple (just as in Fig. 39 also).
The door in the middle leads to the holy place built against the
side of the pyramid, where a false door in the pyramid masonry
served as the portal through which the king came forth from the world
of the dead into this beautiful temple to enjoy the food and drink
placed here for him in magnificent vessels (Plate I) and to share in the
splendid feasts celebrated here. The center of the court is open to the
sky; the roof of the porch all around is supported on round columns,
the earliest known in the history of architecture. Contrast the square
piers without any capital which the architects of Khafre put into his
temple-hall (Fig. 55) over a century earlier than these columns. Each
column reproduces a palm tree, the capital being the crown of foliage.
The whole place was colored in the bright hues of nature, including
the painting on the walls behind the columns. Among these paintings
was the ship in Fig. 41. Thirteen hundred feet of copper piping, the
earliest-known plumbing, was installed in this building (§81)

97. Decline
of the Pyra-
mid Age

carries us to earliest Asia, we shall find that the colonnade
was long unknown there (§ 195).

The Pyramid cemeteries have shown us the grandeur of the
civilization gained by the Egyptians of the Pyramid Age. If
time permitted, we might find other records here, showing how

The Story of Egypt 73

the nobles of the age (just such nobles as the one whose
estate and home we have in imagination visited) gained more
and more power until the Pharaohs could no longer control
them. Then in struggles among themselves they destroyed the
Pharaoh's government, and the last king of the Pyramid Age
fell soon after 2500 B.C. It had lasted some five hundred
years. Thus ended the first great civilized age of human his-
tory— the age which carried men for the first time out of
barbarism into civilization (see Fig. 38). But the Pyramid Age
was not the end of civilization on the Nile ; other great periods
were to follow. The monuments which these later ages left
lie farther up the river, and we must make the voyage up the
Nile in order to visit them and to recover the wonderful story
which they still tell us.

QUESTIONS

Section 5. Tell something of the life of the earliest Nile men and
how we know about them. Trace the steps by which phonetic writing
arose. Where did the first alphabet arise? Write three words in
hieroglyphic (Fig. 30). Discuss the importance of the invention of
writing. Describe early methods of measuring time. Describe the
probable manner of the discovery of metal. Which metal was it?

Section 6. What do the tombs of Egypt tell us of religion ?
Describe the effect of the use of metal on architecture. Discuss the
first architect in stone. Describe the government of the Pyramid
Age. Study Fig. 38 and tell how the Egyptian tombs reveal the
transition from barbarism to civilization. Describe the earliest sea-
going ships. Make a list of the industries revealed in the tomb-chapel
pictures. Discuss trade and commerce.

Section 7. Describe the house and garden of a noble in the
Pyramid Age. Discuss painting and portrait sculpture. Make a
sketch of the earliest piers or supports (Fig. 1$). Were they
beautiful ? Draw a later pier (column) a hundred years after the
Great Pyramid (Fig. ^6). Was it beautiful ? Describe the roof
windows called clerestory windows (Figs. 55 and 271, /) and what
they finally came to be. Give the date of the Pyramid Age, and
tell why it was important.

CHAPTER III

THE STORY OF EGYPT: THE FEUDAL AGE AND
THE EMPIRE

Section 8. The Nile Voyage and the Feudal Age

98. The

Nile voyage
begins

As we begin our voyage up the Nile and our steamer moves
away from the Cairo dock, we see, stretching far along the
western horizon, the long line of pyramids, reminding us again
of the splendor and progress of the Pyramid Age which we
are now leaving behind. At length they drop down and dis-
appear behind the fringe of palm groves. Other great monu-
ments are before us. Along the palm-fringed shores far away
to the south we shall find the buildings, tombs, and monuments

Note. At the left we see entering, in white robes, the deceased, a man
named Ani, and his wife. Before them are the balances of judgment for weighing
the human heart, to determine whether it is just or not. A Jackal-headed god
adjusts the scales, while an Ibis-headed god stands behind him, pen in hand,
ready to record the verdict of the balances. Behind him is a monster ready to
devour the unjust soul, as his heart (symbolized by a tiny jar), in the left-hand
scalepan, is weighed over against right and truth (symbolized by a feather) in the
right-hand scalepan. The scene is painted in water colors on papyrus. Such a
roll is sometimes as much as 90 feet long and filled from beginning to end with
magical charms for the use of the dead in the next world. Hence the modem
name for the whole roll, the " Book of the Dead."

The Story of Egypt

Fig. 57. Cliff-Tomb of an Egyptian Noble of the
Feudal Age

This tomb is not a masonry structure like the tomb of the Pyramid
Age (Fig. 42), but it is cut into the face of the cHff. The chapel
entered through this door contains painted reliefs like those of the
Pyramid Age (Figs. 43-47) and also many written records. In this
chapel the noble tells of his kind treatment of his people ; he says :
" There was no citizen's daughter whom I misused ; there was no
widow whom I oppressed ; there was no peasant whom I evicted ; there
was no shepherd whom I expelled; ... there was none wretched
in my community, there was none hungry in my time. When years
of famine came I plowed all the fields of the Oryx barony [his estate]
. . . preserving its people alive and furnishing its food so that there
was none hungry therein. I gave to the widow as to her who had a
husband ; I did not exalt the great above the humble in anything that
I gave" (§ 100). All this we can read inscribed in this tomb

which will tell us of two more great ages on the Nile — the
Feudal Age and the Empire. We steam steadily ■ southward,
and soon the river begins to wind from side to side of the
deep valley, carrying the steamer at times close under the
scarred and weatherworn cliffs (Fig. 69). As we scan the rocks

Ancient Times

99. The

tombs of the
Feudal Age

100. Books
on kindness
and justice

we look up to many a tomb-door cut in the face of the cliff,
and leading to a tomb-chapel excavated in the rock (Fig. 57).

These cliff-tombs looking down upon the river belonged to
the Feudal Age of Egyptian history. The men buried in these
cliff-tombs looked back across five centuries to their ancestors
of the Pyramid Age, as we look back upon our European
ancestors before the discovery of America. But the nobles
who made these cliff-tombs succeeded in gaining greater power
than their ancestors. They were granted lands by the king,
under arrangements which in later Europe we call feudal.
They were thus powerful barons, living like little kings on their
broad estates, made up of the fertile fields upon which these
tomb-doors now look down. This Feudal Age lasted for
several centuries and was flourishing by 2000 B.C. Fragments
from the libraries of these feudal barons — the oldest libraries
in the world — have fortunately been discovered in their tombs.
These oldest of all surviving books are in the form of rolls of
papyrus, which once were packed in jars, neatly labeled, and
ranged in rows on the noble's library shelves. Here are the
most ancient storybooks in the world : tales of wanderings and
adventures in Asia; tales of shipwreck at the gate of the un-
known ocean beyond the Red Sea — the earliest " Sindbad the
Sailor " (Fig. 58) ; and tales of wonders wrought by ancient
wise men and magicians.

Some of these stories set forth the sufferings of the poor
and the humble, and seek to stir the rulers to be just and kind
in their treatment of the weaker classes. Some describe the
wickedness of men and the hopelessness of the future. Others
tell of a righteous ruler who is yet to come, a "good shep-
herd" they call him, meaning a good king, who shall bring in
justice and happiness for all. We notice here a contrast with
the Pyramid Age. With the in-coming of the Pyramid builders
we saw a tremendous growth in power, in building, and in art ;
but the Feudal Age reveals progress also in a higher realm,
that of conduct and character (see description under Fig. 57).

The Stoiy of Egypt

Probably a number of rolls were required to contain the loi. Drama
drama of Osiris — a great play in which the life, death, burial, ^" ^°^ ^
and resurrection of Osiris (§ 69) were pictured at an annual
feast in which all the people loved to join. It is our earliest

Fig. 58. A Page from the Story of the Shipwrecked

Sailor, the Earliest Sindbad, as read by the Boys and

Girls of Egypt Four Thousand Years Ago (One Third of

Size of Original)

This page reads : " Those who were on board perished, and not one of
them escaped. Then I was cast upon an island by a wave of the great
sea. I passed three days alone, with (only) my heart as my companion,
.sleeping in the midst of a shelter of trees, till daylight enveloped me.
Then I crept out for aught to fill my mouth. I found figs and grapes
there and all fine vegetables. etc. . . ." The tale then tells of his seizure
by an enormous serpent with a long beard, who proves to be the king
of this distant island in the Red Sea, at the entrance of the Indian
Ocean. He keeps the sailor three months, treats him kindly, and re-
turns him with much treasure to Egypt. In form such a book was a
single strip of papyrus paper, 5 or 6 to 10 or 12 inches wide, and often
1 5 to 30 or 40 feet long. When not in use this strip was kept rolled up,
and thus the earliest books were rolls, looking, when small, like a di-
ploma or, when large, like a roll of wall paper

known drama — a kind of Passion Play ; but the rolls contain-
ing it have perished. There were also rolls containing songs
and poems, like the beautiful morning hymn sung by the nobles
of the Pharaoh's court in greeting to the sovereign with the

Anciefit "Times

102. Books
of science

Fig. 59. Ancient Egyp-
tian Astronomical In-
strument

return of each new day. Another
song in praise of the Pharaoh was
arranged to be sung responsively by
two groups at the great court festi-
vals. It was constructed in parallel
verses or lines, like the parallel lines
of the Hebrew Psalms. It is the
oldest surviving example of this
form of poetry.

Very few rolls were needed to
deal with the science of this time.
The largest and the most valuable
of all contained what they had
learned about medicine and the or-
gans of the human body. This oldest
medical book, when unrolled, is to-
day about sixty-six feet long and has
recipes for all sorts of ailments.
Some of them are still good and call
for remedies which, like castor oil,
are still in common use ; others rep-
resent the ailment as due to demons,
which were long believed to be the
cause of disease. There are also
rolls containing the simpler rules of
arithmetic, based on the decimal sys-
tem which we still use ; others treat
the beginnings of geometry and ele-
mentary algebra. Even observations

The oldest surviving as-
tronomical device. It is
now in the Berlin Museum.

One part {A) is simply a plumb line with a handle attached at the top.
It enabled the observer to hold the other part (B) directly over a given
point on the ground while he sighted through the slot at the top toward
some star like the North Star. By sighting over a rod between the
observer and the North Star until the rod was exactly in line with the
North Star, the astronomer could determine his meridian, observe each
star that crossed it, measure time, and secure celestial data of value

The Storyf of Egypt 79

of the heavenly bodies, with simple instruments, were made
(Fig. 59) ; but these records, like those in geography, have
been lost.

Along with this higher progress, the Pharaohs of the Feudal 103. Admins
Age much improved the government. Every few years they irrigation
made census lists to be used in taxation, and a few of these fhe^peudal
earliest census sheets in the world have survived. They erected Age
huge earthen dikes and made vast basins, to store up the Nile
waters for irrigation, thus greatly increasing the yield of the
feudal lands and estates. They measured the height of the
river from year to year, and their marks of the Nile levels are
still to be found cut on the rocks at the Second Cataract. Thus
nearly four thousand years ago they were already doing on a
large scale what our government has only recently begun to do
by its irrigation projects among our own arid lands.

At the same time these rulers of the Feudal Age reached out 104. Pha-
by sea for the wealth of other lands. Their fleets sailed over mercebyTea;
among the yf^gean islands and probably controlled the large o/'[h^l^u^^°'^
island of Crete (§§ 335-345). They dug a canal from the north Canal four
end of the Red Sea westward to the nearest branch of the Nile years ago
in the eastern Delta, where the river divides into a number of
mouths (see map, p. 36). The Pharaoh's Mediterranean ships
could sail up the easternmost mouth of the Nile, then enter the .
canal and, passing eastward through it, reach the Red Sea. Thus
the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea were first connected
by this predecessor of the Suez Canal four thousand years ago.
Such a connection was as important to the Egyptians as the
Panama Canal is to us. Nile ships could likewise now sail from
the eastern Delta directly to the land of Punt (§ 78) and to the
straits leading to the Indian Ocean. These waters seemed to
the sailors of the Feudal Age the end of the world, and their
wondrous adventures there delighted many a circle of villagers
on the feudal estates (Fig. 58). t

In this age the Pharaoh had organized a small standing army.
He could now make his power felt both in north and south, in

Ancient Times

105. Military Palestine and in Nubia. He conquered the territory of Nubia
nS and ^is far south as the Second Cataract (see map, p. 36), and ihr.s
enS^o'Ahe^^^ added two hundred miles of river to the kingdom of Egypt.
Feudal Age * Here he erected strong frontier fortresses against the Nubian
tribes, and these fortresses still stand. The enlightened rule
of the Pharaohs of the Feudal Age did much to prepare the
way for Egyptian leadership in the early world. Three of these
kings bore the name " Sesostris," which became one of the great
and illustrious names in Egyptian history. But not long after
1800 B.C. the power of the Pharaohs of the Feudal Age sud-
denly declined and their line disappeared.

10(5. The

Nile voyage
— arrival at
'^hebe^

t07. Kamak
• — arrival of
the horse in
Egypt

Section 9. The Founding of the Empire

The monuments along the river banks have thus far told us
the story of two of the three periods ^ into which the career of
this great Nile people falls. After we have left the tombs of the
Feudal Age and have continued our journey over four hundred
miles southward from Cairo, all at once we catch glimpses of
vast masses of stone masonry and lines of tall columns rising
among the palms on the east side of the river. They are the
ruins of the once great city of Thebes, which will tell us the
story of the third period, the Empire.

Here we shall find not only a vast cemetery, but also great
temples (see plan, p. 81). A walk around the Temple of Karnak
at Thebes (Fig. 64) is as instructive to us in studying the Empire
as we have found the Gizeh cemetery to be in studying the
Pyramid Age. We find the walls of this immense temple covered
with enormous sculptures in relief, depicting the wars of the
Egyptians in Asia. We see the giant figure of the Pharaoh as
he stands in his war chariot, scattering the enemy before his
plunging horses (Fig. 60). The Pharaohs of the Pyramid Age
had never seen a horse (§ 80), and this is the first time we

1 These tJiree ages are (i) the Pyramid Age, about 3000 to 2500 B.C. (Sec-
tions 6-7) ; (2) the Feudal Age, flourishing 2000 b. c. (Section 8) ; (3) the
Empire, about 1580 to 1150 B.C. (Sections 9-11).

The Story of Egypt

have met the horse on' the ancient monuments. After the close
of the P'eudal Age the animal began to be imported from Asia;
the chariot (Fig. 133) came with him, and Egypt, having learned
warfare on a scale unknown before, became a military empire.

Map of Egyptian Thebes

This map may be compared with the aeroplane view of Karnak (Fig. 64),
taken over point marked X , and with the view of the western plain
toward the colossal statues of Amenhotep III and the western cliffs
(Fig. 69), in and along which lie the tombs of the vast cemetery. Before
it, and parallel with the cliffs, stretched a long line of temples facing
the great temples of Luxor and Karnak on the east side of the river.
The houses of the ancient city have passed away

The Pharaohs were now great generals with a well-organized 108. Egypt
standing army made up chiefly of archers and heavy masses of empire ^
chariots. With these forces the Pharaoh conquered an empire
which extended from the Euphrates in Asia to the Fourth Cata-
ract of the Nile in Africa (see map I, p. 188). By an empire we

Ancient Times

mean a group of nations subdued and ruled over by the most
powerful among them. (Government began with tiny city-states
(§ 38), which gradually merged together into nations (§ 74) ;
but the organization of men had now reached the point where

Fig. 60. A Pharaoh of the Empire fighting in his Chariot

The tiny figures of the enemy are scattered beneath the Pharaoh's
horses. This is one of an enormous series of such scenes, 170 feet
long, carved in relief on the outside of the Great Hall of Karnak
(Fig. 68). Such sculpture was brightly colored and served to enhance
the architectural effect and to impress the people with the heroism
of the Pharaoh. The color has now entirely disappeared, and the
sculpture is much battered and weatherworn. This is the cause of
the indistinctness in the above sketch

many nations were combined into an empire including a large
part of the early oriental world. This world power of the
Pharaohs lasted from the early sixteenth century to the twelfth
century b. c. — something over four hundred years.

The Story of Egypt

The Karnak Temple (Fig. 64), which stood in the once vast 109. The
city of Thebes, is like a great historical volume telling us much QilerTi

Hat-

of the story of the Egyptian Empire. Behind the great hall ^^5^^"^'^^^^
(Figs. 66 and 68) towers a huge obelisk, a shaft of granite in a woman in

single piece nearly a hundred feet high (Fig. 65). It was

history

Fig. 61. Transportation of Queen Hatshepsut's 350-TON
Obelisks down the Nile (Fifteenth Century b.c.)

The two obelisks are lying base to base on a large Nile barge some
300 feet long. The obelisks are each 97^ feet long and weigh about
350 tons each, the two making a burden of some 700 tons in the barge.
It is being towed by thirty tugboats in three rows of ten each. Each
tugboat has thirty-two oarsmen, making nine hundred and sixty oars-
men in all. Under the guidance of the engineers in the other small
boats these men towed the obelisks downstream from the granite quar-
ries of the First Cataract to Thebes — a distance of about 150 miles.
Under each obelisk we can see the sledge on which it was dragged on
shore to the place where they were both set up in the Karnak Temple
(Fig. 64). The scene is restored from a relief on the wall of the queen's
temple at Thebes

erected early in the Empire by the first great woman in history.
Queen Hatshepsut. There were once two of these enormous
monuments (see Fig. 65), and it was no small task to cut out
two such blocks as these from the granite quarries at the
First Cataract, transport them on a huge boat down the river
(Fig. 61), and erect them in this temple. But the queen did not
stop with this achievement. She even dispatched an expedition

Ancient Times

of five ships (Fig. 62) through the Red Sea to Punt (§ 78), to
bring back the luxuries of tropical Africa for another beautiful
terraced temple which she was erecting against the western
cliffs at Thebes (Plan, p. 81). Such achievements show what
an efficient and successful ruler this first great woman was.

Fig. 62. Part of the Fleet of Queen Hatshepsut loading
IN the Land of Punt

Only two of Hatshepsut's fleet of five ships are shown. The sails on
the long spars are furled and the vessels are moored. The sailors are
carrying the cargo up the gangplanks, and one of them is teasing an
ape on the roof of the cabin. The inscriptions above the ships read :
" The loading of the ships very heavily with marvels of the country
of Punt; all goodly fragrant woods of God's- Land [the East], heaps of
myrrh-resin, with fresh myrrh trees, with ebony and pure ivory, with
green gold of Emu, with cinnamon wood, khesyt wood, with two kinds
of incense, eye-cosmetic, with apes, monkeys, dogs, and with skins
of the southern panther, with natives and their children. Never was
brought the like of this for any king who has been since the begin-
ning." The scene is carved on the wall of the queen's temple at Thebes,
in the garden of which she planted the myrrh trees

110. The end

of Hatshep-
sut and the
triumph of
Thutmoselll

As we examine the obelisk of Hatshepsut we find around the
base the remains of stone masonry with which it was once walled
in almost up to the top. This was done by the queen's half
brother and husband, Thutmose III, in order to cover up the
records which proclaimed to the world the hated rule of a
woman. Thus Thutmose III had the names of the queen and
the men who aided her all cut' out and obliterated, including

The Story of Egypt

that of the skillful architect and engineer who erected this obe-
lisk and its companion. But the masonry covering the obelisk
has fallen down, and it still proclaims the fame of Hatshepsut.

Thutmose III (Fig. 63) was the first great general in history, m. The

the Napoleon of Egypt, the greatest of the Egyptian conquerors. iSSe in

(1501-

1447 B.C.)

A D

Fig. 63. Portrait of Thutmose III, the Napoleon of Ancient

Egypt {A\ compared with his Mummy {B)

This portrait [A), carved in granite, can be compared with the actual
face of the great conqueror as we have it in his mummy. Such a com-
parison is shown in B, where the profile of this granite portrait (out-
side Hnes) is placed over the profile of Thutmose Ill's mummy (inside
lines). The correspondence is very close, showing great accuracy in
the portrait art of this age

He ruled for over fifty years, beginning about 1500 B.C. On
the temple walls at Karnak we can read the story of nearly
twenty years of warfare, during which Thutmose crushed the
cities and kingdoms of Western Asia and welded them into an
enduring empire. At the same time his war fleet carried his
power even to the ^gean, and one of his generals became
governor of the ^4^>gean islands (Fig. 143 ; see map I, p. 188).

Ancient Times

Section io. The Higher Life of the Empire

The wealth which the Pharaohs captured in Asia and Nubia
during the Empire brought them power and magnificence un-
known to the world before, especially as shown in their vast
and splendid buildings. A new and impressive chapter in the
history of art and architecture was begun. The temple of
Karnak, which we have visited, contains the greatest colon-
naded hall ever erected by man. The columns of the central
aisle (Fig. 68) are sixty-nine feet high. The vast capital form-
ing the summit of each column is large enough to contain a
group of a hundred men standing crowded upon it at the same
time. The clerestory windows (Fig. 68) on each side of these
giant columns are no longer low, depressed openings, as in the
Pyramid Age (Fig. 55 and Fig. 271,/), but they have now become
fine, tall windows, showing us the Egyptian clerestory hall on its
way to become the basilica church of much later times (Fig. 271).
\. The sur- Such temples as these at Thebes were seen through the deep
green of clustering palms, among towering obelisks and colos-
sal statues of the Pharaohs (Fig. 69). The whole was bright
with color, flashing at many a point with gold and silver.
Mirrored in the unruffled surface of the temple lake (Fig. 64),
it made a picture of such splendor as the ancient world had
never seen before. As the visitor entered he found himself

* This point of view is behind (east of) the great Karnak Temple at
point marked X in plan (p. 81). We look northwestward across the
Temple and the river to the western cliffs (cf. plan, p. 81). From
the rear gate below us (lower right-hand corner of view) to the tall
front wall nearest the river, the Temple is nearly a quarter of a mile
long, and was nearly two thousand years in course of construction.
The oldest portions were built by the kings of the Feudal Age, and the
latest, the front wall, by the Greek kings (the Ptolemies, Section 66).
The standing obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut (Fig. 65) can be seen rising
in the middle of the Temple. Beyond it is the vast colonnaded Hall of
Karnak (Figs. 66 and 68), on the outside wall of which are the great war
reliefs (Fig. 60). Hidden by the huge front wall is the Avenue of
Sphinxes (Fig. 67). On the left we see the pool — all that is left of the
sacred lake (§ 113).

Fig. 64. The Great Temple of Karnak and the Nile
Valley at Thebes seen from an Aeroplane*

The area included in this view will be found bounded by two diverg-
ing dotted lines on the map of Thebes (p. 81). It will be seen that
our view includes only a portion of the ancient city, which extended
up and down both sides of the river. For description of Karnak, see
note on opposite page

From an etching by George T. Plowman

Fig. 65. The Obelisks of Queen Hatshepsut and her Father
Thutmose I AT Karnak

The further obelisk is that of the queen. It was one of a pair transported
from the First Cataract (Fig. 61), but its mate has fallen and broken into
pieces. The shaft is 8^ feet thick at the base, and the human figure by
contrast conveys some idea of the vast size of the monument. Its posi-
tion in the temple can be seen from the aeroplane view (Fig. 64)

From a pen etching by Sears Gallagher

Fig. 66. The Colossal Columns of the Nave in the Great

Hall of Karnak

These are the columns of the middle two rows in Fig. 68. On the top

of the capital of each one of these columns a hundred men can stand at

once. These great columns may be seen in the aeroplane view (Fig. 64)

just at the left of the two obelisks

The Story of J^^gypt

in a spacious and sunlit court, surrounded by splendid colon-
naded porches. Beyond, all was mystery, as he looked into the
somber forest of vast columns in the hall behind the court
(Figs. 66 and 68). These temples were connected by imposing

Fig. 68. Restoratiox of the Great Hall of Karnak, An-
cient Thebes — Largest Building of the Egyptian Empire

With the wealth taken in Asia the Egyptian conquerors of the Empire
enabled their architects to build the greatest colonnaded hall ever
erected by man. It is 338 feet wide and 170 feet deep, furnishing a
floor area about equal to that of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris,
although this is only a single room of the Temple. There are one hundred
and thirty-six columns in sixteen rows. The nave (three central aisles)
is 79 feet high and contains twelve columns in two rows, which the
architects have made much higher than the rest, in order to insert
lofty clerestory windows on each side. Compare the very low windows
of the earliest clerestory (Fig. 55 and Fig. 271, / and 2). In this higher
form the clerestory passed over to Europe (Fig. 271)

avenues of sphinxes (Fig. 67), and thus grew up at Thebes
the first great "'monumental city " ever built by man — a city
which as a whole was itself a vast and imposing monument.^
Much of the grandeur of Egyptian architecture was due to
the sculptor and the painter. The colonnades, with flower capi-
tals, were colored to suggest the plants they represented. The P'^^

1 City plans which treat a whole city as a symmetrical and harmonious unit
are now beginning to be made in America.

114. Painting
and sculpture
in the tern-

Fig. 70. Colossal Portrait Figure of Ramses II at Abu-
SiMBEL IN Egyptian Nubia

Four such statues, 75 feet high, adorn the front of this temple, which, hke
the statues, is hewn from the sandstone cliffs. The faces are better pre-
served than that of the Great Sphinx (Fig. 54) or the portrait statues of
Amenhotep III (Fig. 69), and we can here see that such vast figures were
portraits. The face of Ramses II here closely resembles that of his
mummy (Fig. 123). (From a photograph taken from the top of the crown
of one of the statues by The University of Chicago Expedition)

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The Story of Egypt 89

vast battle scenes, carved on the temple wall (Fig. 60), were
painted in bright colors. The portrait statues of the Pharaohs,
set up before these temples, were often so large that they rose
above the towers of the temple front itself, — the tallest part of
the building, • — and they could be seen for miles around (Figs.
69 and 70). The sculptors could cut these colossal figures from
a single block, although they were sometimes eighty or ninety
feet high and weighed as much as a thousand tons. This is
a burden equal to the load drawn by a modern freight train,
but unlike the trainload it was not cut up into small units of
light weight, convenient for handling and loading. Nevertheless,
the engineers of the Empire moved many such vast figures for
hundreds of miles, using the same methods employed in moving
obelisks. It is in works of this massive, monumental character
that the art of Eg}'pt excelled (Fig. 70).

Two enormous portraits of Amenhotep III, the most luxu- 115. Tombs
rious and splendid of the Egyptian emperors, still stand on menonhe
the western plain of Thebes (Fig. 69), across the river from Empire
Kamak. As we approach them we see rising behind them
the majestic western cliffs in which are cut hundreds of tomb-
chapels belonging to the great men of the Empire. Here were
buried the able generals who marched with the Pharaohs on
their campaigns in Asia and in Nubia. Here lay the gifted
artists and architects who built the vast monuments we have
just visited, and made Thebes the first great "monumental city"
of the ancient world. Here in these tomb-chapels we may read
their names and often long accounts of their lives. Here is the
story of the general who saved Thutmose Ill's life, in a great'
elephant hunt in Asia, by rushing in and cutting off the trunk
of an enraged elephant which was pursuing the king. Here is
the tomb of the general who captured the city of Joppa in
Palestine by concealing his men in panniers loaded on the
backs of donkeys, and thus bringing them into the city as
merchandise — an adventure which afterward furnished part
of the story of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves."

Ancient Times

ii6. The fur- The very furniture which these great men used in their
equipment of houses was put into their tombs. In a neighboring valley was
lo?dfSfound ''^cently found the tomb of the parents of Amenhotep Ill's
in their tombs queen. Their beautiful villa among the Theban gardens
was filled with gorgeous furniture which their royal son-in-
law, Amenhotep III,
had given to them.
When this worthy
old couple died, the
king had them won-
derfully embalmed,
and much of the
furniture which he
had given to them
(Fig. 73) was car-
ried to the cemetery
and deposited in
their tomb, includ-
ing even the gold-
covered chariot in
which the old couple
were accustomed to
take their daily air-
ing thirty-three hun-
dred years ago.
Here we find chairs
covered with gold
and silver and fitted
with soft leathern

Fig. 73. Armchair from the House of
AN Egyptian Noble of the Empire

This chair with other furniture from his house
was placed in his tomb at Thebes in the early
part of the fourteenth century B.C. There it
remained for nearly thirty-three hundred years,
till it was discovered in 1905 and removed to
the National Museum at Cairo (§ 116)

cushions, a bed of sumptuous workmanship, jewel boxes, and
perfume caskets. They are works of art — real triumphs of
the skill of the Empire craftsmen — and almost as well preserved,
leather cushion and all, as when first made. Even the shadow
clock, which belonged to the furniture of a well-equipped house-
hold, still survives (Fig. 74).

The Story of Egypt

These tombs show us also how much farther the Egyptian 117. Religion
has advanced in religion since the days of the pyramids of '" ^ '"^"^
Gizeh. Each of these great men buried in the Theban cemetery
looked forward to a judgment in the next world, where Osiris
(§69) was the great judge and king. Every good man might
rise from the dead as Osiris had done, but in the presence
of Osiris he would be obliged to see his soul weighed in the

Fig. 74. The Oldest Clock in the World — an Egyptian
Shadow Clock

In sunny Egypt a shadow clock was a very practical instrument. In the
morning the crosspiece {A A) was turned toward the east, and its shadow
fell on the long arm {BB)^ where we see it at the first hour. As the sun
rose higher the shadow shortened and its place on the scale showed the
hour, which could be read in figures for six hours until noon. At noon
the head ^AA) was turned around to the west and the lengthening after-
noon shadow on the long arm (^BB) was measured in the same way. It
was from the introduction of such Egyptian clocks that the twelve-hour
day reached Europe. This clock bears the name of Thutmose III and
is therefore about thirty-four hundred years old. Nearly a thousand
years later such clocks were adopted by the Greeks. It is now in the
Berlin Museum. The headpiece {AA) is restored after Borchardt

balances over against the symbol of truth and justice (head-
piece, p. 74). The dead man's friends put into his coffin a
roll of papyrus containing prayers and magic charms which
would aid him in the hereafter, and among these was a picture
of the judgment. We now call this roll the '' Book of the
Dead" (headpiece, p. 74).

When the Empire was about two hundred years old, Amen-
hotep Ill's youthful son, Amenhotep IV, became Pharaoh in
his father's place. He believed in only one god, the Sun-god,

Ancient Times

ii8. The

religious
revolution of
Amenhotep
iV(lkhnaton)

119. Ikhna-
ton's new
capital, now
called
Amama

120. Ikhna-
ton's hymns
to Aton, the
sole God

and he began a new and remarkable chapter in the religious
history of Egypt by the attempt to destroy the old gods of
Egypt and to induce the people to adopt the exclusive worship
of the Sun-god. He commanded that throughout the great
Empire, including its people in both Africa and Asia, only the
Sun-god, whom he called Aton^ should be worshiped. In order
that the people might forget the old gods, he closed all the
temples and cast out their priests. Everywhere he also had
the names of the gods erased and cut out, especially on all
temple walls. He particularly hated Amon, or Amen, the
great Theban god of the Empire whose temple we visited at
Karnak. His own royal name, Amen-hotep (meaning " Amen
rests"), contained this god Amends name, and he therefore
changed his name Amenhotep to Ikhnaton, which means " Aton
(the Sun-god) is satisfied."

Ikhnaton, as we must now call him, finally forsook magnifi-
cent Thebes, where there were so many temples of the old
gods, and built a new city farther down the river, which he
named " Horizon of Aton." It is now called Amarna (see map,
p. 36). The city was forsaken a few years after Ikhnaton's
death, and beneath the rubbish of its ruins to-day we find the
lower portions ol the walls of the houses and palaces which
once adorned it. Recently the ruins of the studio of a sculp-
tor were uncovered there and found to contain many beautiful
works, which have greatly increased our knowledge of the
wonderful sculpture of the age (Fig. 71). The cliffs behind the
city still contain the cliff-tombs of the followers whom the young
king was able to convert to the new faith, and in them we find
engraved on the walls beautifully sculptured scenes picturing
the life of the now forgotten city.

In these Amarna tomb-chapels we may still read on the walls
the hymns of praise to the Sun-god, which Ikhnaton himself
wrote. They show us the simplicity and beauty of the young
king's faith in the sole God. He had gained the belief that
one God created not only all the lower creatures but also all

The Story of Egypt 93

races of men, both Egyptians and foreigners. Moreover, the
king saw in his God a kindly Father, who maintained all his
creatures by his goodness, so that even the birds in the marshes
were aware of his kindness, and uplifted their wings like arms
to praise him, as a beautiful line in one of the hymns tells us.
In all the progress of men which we have followed through
thousands of years, no one had ever before caught such a
vision of the great Father of all. Such a belief in one god
is called monotheism, which literally means one-god-ism.

Section ii. The Decline and Fall of the
Egyptian Empire

A new faith like this could not be understood by the common 121. ikhna-
people of the fourteenth century b. c. The country was full of at home
the discontented priests of the old gods, and equally dissatisfied
spldiers of the neglected army. The priests secretly plotted
with the troops against the king, and they found willing ears
among the idle soldiery. Confusion and disturbance arose in
Egypt, and the conquered countries in Asia were preparing
to revolt.

The consequences in Asia have been revealed to us by a 122. ikhna-
remarkable group of over three hundred letters, part of the abroad ; the
royal records stored in one of Ikhnaton's government offices ^^^^
at Amama. Here they had lain for over three thousand years,
when they were found some years ago by native diggers. They
are written on clay tablets (§ 147), in Babylonian writing (§ 148).
Most of these letters proved to be from the kings of Western
Asia to the Pharaoh, and they form the oldest international
correspondence in the world (Fig. 126). They show us how
these kings were gradually shaking off the rule of the
Pharaoh, so that the Egyptian Empire in Asia was rapidly
falling to pieces. The Pharaoh's northern territory in Syria
(see map I, p. 188) was being taken by the Hittites, who came
in from Asia Minor (§359), while his southern territory in

Ancient Times

123. Death

of Ikhnaton ;
partial resto-
ration of the
Egyptian
Empire, last
great power
of Age
of Bronze ;
coming of
iron

124. Foreign
mercenaries
in the Egyp-
tian army ;
invasion of
the North-
erners ; fall of
the Empire

125. The

bodies of the

Egyptian

emperors

Palestine was being invaded by the Hebrews, who were
drifting in from the desert (§ 293).

In the midst of these troubles at home and abroad the
young Ikhnaton died, leaving no son behind him. Although
a visionary and an idealist, he was the most remarkable genius
of the early oriental world before the Hebrews ; but the faith
in one god which he attempted to introduce perished with him.
A new line of kings, the greatest of whom were Seti I (Fig. 72)
and his son Ramses II (Fig. 123), after desperate efforts were
able to restore to some extent the Egyptian Empire. But
they were unable to drive the Hittites out of Syria, for these
Hittite invaders from Asia Minor possessed iron (§ 360), which
they could use for weapons, while the declining Egyptian Empire
was the last great power of the Age of Bronze.

At Thebes the symptoms of the coming fall may be seen
even at the present day. If we examine the great war pictures
on the Theban temples which we have been visiting, we find
in the battle scenes of the later Empire great numbers of
foreigners serving in the Egyptian army. This shows that the
Egyptians had finally lost their temporary interest in war and
were calling in foreigners to fight their battles. Among these
strangers are the peoples of the northern Mediterranean whom
we left there in the Late Stone Age (§ 44). Here on the
Egyptian monuments we find them after they have got from
eastern peoples the art of using metal. With huge bronze
swords in their hands we see them serving as hired soldiers
in the Egyptian army (tailpiece, p. 519). They and other Medi-
terranean foreigners (§ 378) finally invaded Egypt in such
numbers that the weakened Egyptian Empire fell, in the middle
of the twelfth century B. c.

The great Pharaohs, who maintained themselves for over
four hundred years as emperors, were buried here at Thebes.
On the other side of the cliffs behind the huge statues of
Amen'^otep III (Fig. 69) is a wild and desolate valley formed
by a deep depression in the western desert (Fig. 75). Here, in

The Story of Egypt

over forty vast rock-hewn galleries reaching hundreds of feet
into the mountain, the bodies of the Egyptian emperors were
laid to rest, only to suffer pillage and robbery after the fall of
the Empire. Their weak successors as kings at Thebes hurried
the royal bodies from one
hiding place to another, and
finally concealed them in a
secret chamber hewn for this
purpose in the western cliffs.
Here they lay undisturbed
for nearly three thousand
years, until, in 1881, they
were discovered and removed
to the National Museum at
Cairo, where they still rest
(cf . Fig. 72). Thus we are
still able to look into the
very faces of these lords of
Egypt and Western Asia
who lived and ruled from
thirty-one hundred to thirty-
five hundred years ago.

Thus ends the story of
the Empire at Thebes. The
pyramids, tombs, and tem-
ples along the Nile have told
us the history of early Egypt
in three epochs: the Pyra-
mids of Gizeh and the
neighboring cemeteries of
Memphis have told us about the Pyramid Age ; the cliff-tombs,
which we found on the Nile voyage, have revealed the history
of the Feudal Age ; and the temples and cliff -tombs of Thebes
have given us the story of the Empire. The Nile has become
for us a great volume of history. Let us remember, however,

Fig. 75. Valley at Thebes

WHERE THE PhARAOHS OF THE

Empire were buried

In the Empire (after 1600 B.C.) the
Pharaohs had ceased to erect pyra-
mids. They excavated their tombs
in the cliff walls of this valley (see
plan, p. 81), penetrating in long
galleries hundreds of feet into the
rock. Taken from here and con-
cealed near by, the bodies of many
of the Pharaohs, although long ago
stripped of their valuables by tomb
robbers, have survived and now lie
in the National Museum of Egypt at
Cairo (Fig. 72)

126. Final
significance
of the Nile
voyage

Ancient Times

that, preceding these three great chapters of civilization on the
Nile, we also found here the earlier story of how man passed
from Stone Age barbarism to a civilization possessed of metal,
writing, and government (§ 66). On the other hand, as we

Oval containing name of
Ptolemy in hieroglyphics

Oval containing name of
Cleopatra in hieroglyphics

\s\

PTOLEMAIOS

1 niiijv r vj riirmix

KLEOPATRA

1234B67 8 »

□ (/andj)

=: P in both names

J\ (r) =K in one name

Pj (///and^)
^^^::£^(/Kand 2)

= T in one name
= 0 in both names

(^ (j) = E in one name

= L in both names

^^ (6 and 9) = A in two places

= M in one name

C-'^ra (7) — T in one name
<IZ!3> (<S) = R in one name

1 1\ (^^^>

— AI in one name
= S in one name

/^^ ( unpronounced signs
p. > (/o) — placed at end of
vJJ [ all feminine names

Fig. y6. Diagram showing the First Steps in Champollion's
Decipherment of Egyptian Hieroglyphics *

look forward, we should remember also that the three great
chapters did not end the story; for Egyptian institutions and
civilization continued far down into the Christian Age and
greatly influenced later history in Europe (§ § 65 7, 98 1, and 1 063).

The Story of Egypt 97

Section 12. The Decipherment of Egyptian
Writing by Champollion

Finally, our Nile voyage has also shown us how we gain 127. in mod-
knowledge of ancient men and their deeds from the monuments q™ aSe^to °
and records which they have left behind. We have also noticed ^f^'^ Egyp-

•^ tian writing

how greatly the use of the earliest written documents aids us before 1822
in putting together the story. If we had made our journey up

* Champollion found an obelisk bearing on its base a Greek in-
scription, showing that the obelisk belonged to a king Ptolemy and
his queen Cleopatra. The obelisk shaft bore an inscription in hiero-
glyphics which he therefore thought must somewhere contain the
names Ptolemy and Cleopatra. Other scholars had shown that the
ovals, or " cartouches " (see opposite page), so common on Egyptian
mcnuments, contained royal names. Examination showed two such
ovals on the shaft of the obelisk. He concluded that the hieroglyphs
in these two ovals spelled the names Ptolemy and Cleopatra. He then
proceeded to compare them with the Greek spelling of Ptolemy
{Ptolemaios) and Cleopatra. These Greek spellings (in ottr letters)
will be found in Fig. 76, each paired with its corresponding hiero-
glyphic form. All signs and letters in the left pair are numbered
with Roman numerals, and in the right pair with Arabic numerals.
The first sign (I) in oval A is an oblong rectangle, and if it really is
the first letter in Ptolemy's name, it must be the letter P. Now the
fifth letter in Cleopatra's name is also a P, and so the fifth sign in
the oval B ought also to be an oblong rectangle. To Champollion's
delight oval B did not disappoint him, and sign 5 proved to be an
oblong rectangle. He was at first troubled by the fact that in his next
comparison, II and 7 in the two ovals did not prove to be alike as the
sign for T, but he concluded that 7 must be a second form for T, and
he was right. The next two signs in oval A (III and IV) corre-
sponded exactly with 4 and 2 in oval B, and showed him that he was
certainly on the right road. Although the vowels (e.g. VII and 3)
caused him some trouble, he soon saw that Egyptian was inaccurate in
writing the vowels, or even omitted them (see Fig, 29). From these
two names he had proved that the Egyptians possessed an alphabet
and not merely signs for whole syllables or whole words. He had also
learned the sounds of twelve of the letters (see table of signs below
the names) and laid the foundation for completing the decipherment,
by the aid of the Rosetta Stone (Fig. 207), which he then for the first
time understood how to use, after scholars had been working on it in
vain for over twenty years. This was in 1822,^ and Champollion then
announced his discovery to the French Academy in Paris.

Ancient Times

128. Cham-
poll.ion's first
efforts at
decipher-
ment

129. Cham-
poUion's
successful de-
cipherment

130. Tran-
sition to Asia

the Nile a hundred years ago, however, we would have had no
one to tell us what these Egyptian records meant. For the last
man who could read Egyptian hieroglyphs died over a thousand
years ago. A hundred years ago, therefore, no one understood
the curious writing which travelers found covering the great
monuments along the Nile.

For a long time scholars puzzled over the strange Nile
records, but made little progress in reading them. Then a
young Frenchman named Champollion took up the problem,
and after years of discouraging failure he began to make
progress. He discovered the names of Ptolemy and Cleopatra
written in hieroglyphics. He was thus able to determine the
sounds of twelve hieroglyphic signs which he proved to be
alphabetic (see explanation of Fig. 76). Champollion was then
able to read several other royal names, and in 1822, in a famous
letter to the French Academy, he announced his discovery and
explained the steps he had taken.

It was not until this point was reached that he was able to
make use of the well-known Rosetta Stone, which was there-
fore not the first key employed by Champollion. But the
Rosetta Stone (Fig. 207) then enabled him rapidly to increase
his list of known hieroglyphic signs and to learn the meanings
of words and the construction of sentences. When he died, in
1832, he had written a little grammar and prepared a small
dictionary of hieroglyphic. There remains even now much to
leam about the Egyptian language and writing, but Champol-
lion's marvelous achievement laid the foundations of a new
science now called Egyptology, which has restored to the world
a lost chapter of human history nearly three thousand years in
length. Thus the monuments of the Nile have gained a voice,
and have told us their wonderful story of how man gained
civilization.

In a similar way the monuments discovered along the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers in Asia have been deciphered and made
to tell their story. They show us that, following the Egyptians,

The Story of Egypt 99

the peoples of Asia emerged from barbarism, gained indus-
tries, learned the use of metals, devised a system of writing,
and finally rose to the leading position, of power in the ancient
world. We must therefore turn, in the next chapter, to the
story of the early Orient in Asia.

QUESTIONS

Section 8. What ages do the monuments up the Nile reveal
to us.? Describe the rule of a Feudal Age baron. Describe his
library. What kind of progress had been made since the Pyramid
Age.? Describe the science of the time. What great commercial
link between two seas was created?

SectTon 9. Write a description of what you see from an aero-
plane over the east end of the Temple of Karnak. How did the
Pharaohs who built Karnak differ from those who built the pyramids ?
Who was the first great woman in history ? Tell something of her
reign. Tell about the reign of the greatest Egyptian general. What
is an empire ? What was the extent of the Egyptian Empire t

Section 10. What did the Egyptian emperors do with the wealth
gained from subject peoples.? Describe an empire temple and its
surroundings. Describe the great Karnak hall, and tell how the clere-
story was improved. Give an account of the Theban cemetery and
what it contains. Who tried to introduce the earliest belief in one
god.? Describe the attempt.

Section ii. What were the consequences of Ikhnaton's move-
ment.? Tell about the Amarna letters. What Northerners held
Syria, and what new weapons did they have? What do the war
pictures at Thebes show us about the Egyptian army ? What
foreigners invaded Egypt and aided in destroying the Empire?
What happened to the bodies of the emperors ? Summarize the
ages we have learned along the Nile from the pyramids to Thebes.

Section i 2. Why were our great-grandfathers unable to read
hieroglyphic ? Who deciphered it, and when ? What Egyptian sign
represents the first letter in Ptolemy's name? What Egyptian sign
represents the fifth sign in Cleopatra's name? Compare the fourth
Egyptian sign in Ptolemy's name with the second sign in Cleopatra's
name. Would you call this an accident or proof that the lion equals LI
What monument did Champollion next use ? Describe it (Fig. 207),

CHAPTER IV

WESTERN ASIA : BABYLONIA

Section 13. The Lands and Races of
Western Asia

131. Water
boundaries
of Western
Asia; moun-
tainous north,
desert south

The westernmost extension of Asia is an irregular region
roughly included within the circuit of waters marked out by the
Caspian and Black seas on the north, by the Mediterranean
and Red seas on the west, and by the Indian Ocean and the
Persian Gulf on the south and east. It is a region consisting
chiefly of mountains in the north and desert in the south. The
earliest home of men in this great arena of Western Asia is a
borderland between the desert and the mountains, a kind of
cultivable fringe of the desert, a fertile crescent having the
mountains on one side and the desert on the other.

Note. The above scene shows us the Semitic nomads on the Fertile Cres-
cent along the Sea of Galilee. In spring the region is richly overgrown, but the
vegetation soon fades. The dark camel's-hair tents of these wandering shepherds
are easily carried from place to place as they seek new pasturage (§ 134). They
live on the milk and flesh of the flocks.

100

Western Asia : Babylonia lOI

This fertile crescent is approximately a semicircle, with the 132. The Fer
open side toward the south, having the west end at the south- betweSf*^^"
east corner of the Mediterranean, the center directly north of
Arabia, and the east end at the north end of the Persian Gulf
(see map, p. 100). It lies like an army facing south, with one
wing stretching along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean
and the other reaching out to the Persian Gulf, while the center
has its back against the northern mountains. The end of the
western wing is Palestine; Assyria makes up a large part of
the center; while the end of the eastern wing is Babylonia.

This great semicircle, for lack of a name, may be called the 133. The
Fertile Crescent.^ It may also be likened to the shores of a
desert-bay, upon which the mountains behind look down — a
bay not of water but of sandy waste, some five hundred miles
across, forming a northern extension of the Arabian desert
and sweeping as far north as the latitude of the northeast
comer, of the Mediterranean. This desert-bay is a limestone
plateau of some height — too high indeed to be watered by
the Tigris and Euphrates, which have cut canons obliquely
across it. Nevertheless, after the meager winter rains, wide
tracts of the northern desert-bay aref clothed with scanty grass,
and spring thus turns the region for a short time into grass-
lands. The history of Western Asia may be described as an
age-long struggle between the mountain peoples of the north
and the desert wanderers of these grasslands — a struggle
which is still going on — for the possession of the Fertile
Crescent, the shores of the desert-bay.

Arabia is totally lacking in rivers and enjoys but a few 134. The
weeks of rain in midwinter ; hence it is a desert very little ert and the
of which is habitable. Its people are and have been from the nomad^
remotest ages a great white race called Semites. The Semites
have always been divided into many tribes and groups, just as

1 There is no name, either geographical or political, which includes all of this
great semicircle (see map, p. loo). Hence we are obliged to coin a term and call
it the Fertile Crescent

I02 Ancient Times

were the American Indians, whom we call Sioux, or Seminoles,
or Iroquois. So we shall find many tribal or group names
among the Semites. With two of these we are familiar — the
Arabs, and the Hebrews whose descendants dwell among us.
They all spoke and still speak dialects of the same tongue, of
which Hebrew was one. For ages they have moved up and
down the habitable portions of the Arabian world, seeking pas-
turage for their flocks and herds (headpiece, p. loo). Such
wandering shepherds are called nomads, and we remember
how their manner of life arose after the domestication of
sheep and goats (see §§ 35-36).
135. Cease- From the earliest tiAies, when the spring grass of the

the^ nomad northern wilderness is gone, they have been constantly drifting
from the des- jj^ from the sandv sea upon the shores of the northern desert-

ert to the Fer- ^ ^

tile Crescent bay. If they can secure a footing there, they slowly make the
transition from the wandering life of the desert nomad to the
settled life of the agricultural peasant (see § 36). This slow
shift at times swells into a great tidal wave of migration, when
the wild hordes of the wilderness roll in upon the fertile shores
of the desert-bay — a human tide from the desert to the towns
which they overwhelm. We can see this process going on for
thousands of years. Among such movements we are familiar
with the passage of the Hebrews from the desert into Pales-
tine, as described in the Bible, and some readers will recall the
invasions of the Arab hosts which, when converted to Moham-
medanism, even reached Europe and threatened to girdle the
Mediterranean (§ 1 1 55). After they had adopted a settled town
life, the colonies of the Semites stretched far westward through
the Mediterranean, especially in northern Africa, even to south-
ern Spain and the Atlantic (see diagram. Fig. 112, and map,
p. 288). But it took many centuries for the long line of their
settlements to creep slowly westward until it reached the
Atlantic, and we must begin with the Semites in the desert.
Out on the wide reaches of the desert there are no bound-
aries ; the pasturage is free as air to the first comer. No man

Western Asia: Babylonia 103

of the tribe owns land ; there are no landholding rich and 136. Lack of
no landless poor. The men of the desert know no" law. The anVindu"^
keen-eyed desert marauder looks with' envy across the hills tries among

-^ ■' the Semitic

dotted with the flocks of the neighboring tribe, which may be nomads of

Ar3.bi3.

his when he has slain the solitary shepherd at the well. But
if he does so, he knows that his own family will suffer death or
heavy damages, not at the hands of the State, but at the hands
of the slain shepherd's family. This custom, known as "blood
revenge," has a restraining influence like that of law. Under
such conditions there is no State. Writing and records are
unknown, industries are practically nonexistent, and the desert
tribesmen lead a life of complete freedom. The Turkish gov-
ernment owning Arabia to-day is as powerless to control the
wandering Arabs of the wilderness as were formerly our own
authorities in suppressing the lawlessness of our own herdsmen
whom we called cowboys.

The tribesmen drift with their flocks along the margin of 137. Traffic
the Fertile Crescent till they discern a town among the palm caravan
groves. Objects of picturesque interest to the curious eyes of
the townsmen, they appear in the market place to traffic for
the weapons, utensils, and raiment with which the nomad can-
not dispense (headpiece, p. 197). They soon learn to carry
goods from place to place and thus become not only the
common carriers of the settled communities but also traders
on their own account, fearlessly leading their caravans across
the wastes of the desert-bay, lying like a sea between Syria-
Palestine and Babylonia. They became the greatest merchants
of the ancient world, as their Hebrew descendants among us
still are at the present day.

The wilderness is the nomad's home. Its vast solitudes have 138- Religion
tinged his soul with solemnity. His imagination peoples the nomad
far reaches of the desert with invisible and uncanny creatures,
who inhabit every rock and tree, hilltop and spring. These
creatures are his gods, whom he believes he can control by the
utterance of magic charms — the earliest prayers. He believes

I04

Ancient Times

139. The

tribal god of
the nomad

140. The

nomad's
thoughts
about his
tribal god ;
his ideas of
right

141. The
western
Semites on
the west end
of the Fertile
Crescent

that such charms render these uncanny gods powerless to do
him injury and compel them to grant him aid.

The nomad pictures each one of these beings as controlling
only a little comer of the great world, perhaps only a well and
its surrounding pastures. At the next well, only a day's march
away, there is another god, belonging to the next tribe. For
each tribe have a favorite or tribal god, who, as they believe,
journeys with them from pasture to pasture, sharing their food
and their feasts and receiving as his due from the tribesmen
the firstborn of their flocks and herds.

The thoughts of the desert wanderer about the character of
such a god are crude and barbarous, and his religious customs are
often savage, even leading him to sacrifice his children to appease
the angry god. On the other hand, the nomad has a dawning
sense of justice and of right, and he feels some obligations of
kindness to his fellows which he believes are the compelling voice
of his god. Such feelings at last became lofty moral vision, which
made the Semites the religious teachers of the civilized world.

As early as 3000 B.C. they were drifting in from the desert
and settling in Palestine, on the western end of the Fertile
Crescent, where we find them in possession of walled towns
by 2500 B.C. (Fig. 124). These predecessors of the Hebrews in
Palestine were a tribe called Canaanites (§§ 293-294); farther
north settled a powerful tribe known as Amorites (§175);
while along the shores of north Syria (Fig. 159) some of these
one-time desert wanderers had taken to the sea, and had be-
come the Phoenicians (§ 396). By 2000 B.C. all these setded
communities of the western Semites had developed no mean
degree of civilization, drawn for the most part from. Egypt and
Babylonia. Their home along the east end of the Mediter-
ranean was on the highway between these two countries,
and they were in constant contact with both (map, p. 100). The
Phoenicians, however, belonged to the Mediterranean, and we
shall take up their story in discussing the history of the
eastern Mediterranean (Sections 39 and 40).

Western Asia : Babylonia

105

At the same time we can watch similar movements of the
nomads at the eastern end of the Fertile Crescent, along
the lower course of the Tigris and Euphrates (Fig. 77),
which we shall henceforth speak of as the " Two Rivers."
They rise in the northern mountains (see map, p. 100), whence
they issue to cross the Fertile Crescent and to cut obliquely
southeastward through the northern bay of the desert. Here

142. The east

end of the
Fertile Cres-
cent; the
Two Rivers
and the
three great
chapters in
their history

Fig. tt. The Euphrates at Babylon in Winter

The winter rainfall (§ 144) is so slight that the river shrinks to a very
low level and its bed is exposed and dry almost to the middle. In
summer the rains and melting snows in the northern mountains swell
the river till it overflows its banks and inundates the Babylonian plain.
The house on the right was the dwelling of the archaeological expedition
which until 19 17 was engaged in excavating Babylon (Fig. in)

on these two great rivers of Western Asia developed the earliest
civilization known in Asia. Just as on the Nile, so here on the
Two Rivers we shall find three great chapters in the story.

As on the Nile, so also the earliest of the three chapters of
Tigris-Euphrates history will be found in the lower valley near
the rivers' mouths. This earliest chapter is the story of Baby-
lonia.^ As the Two Rivers approach most closely to each other,
about one hundred and sixty or seventy miles from the Persian

1 The other two chapters of Tigris-Euphrates history are Assyria and the
Chaldean Empire (Chapter V).

143. The

Plain of
Shinar (or
Babylonia),
the scene of
the earliest
chapter of
Tigris-
Euphrates
history

io6

Ancient Times

Gulf/ they emerge from the desert and enter si low plain of
fertile soil, formerly brought down by the rivers. This plain
is Babylonia, the eastern end of the Fertile Crescent. But
during the first thousand years of the known history of this
plain the later city of Babylon had not yet arisen, or was a
mere village playing little or no part in the history of the

Sketch Map of Sumer and Akkad

144. Area of
the Plain of
Shinar; its
fwtility

region. The plain was then called Shinar, and Babylonia is
a name that properly should not be applied to it until after
2100 B.C. (see § 176).

Rarely more than forty miles wide, the Plain of Shinar con-
tained probably less than eight thousand square miles of
cultivable soil — roughly equal to the state of New Jersey or the

1 This distance applies only to ancient Babylonian and Assyrian days. The
rivers have since then filled up the Persian Gulf for one hundred and fifty to
one hundred and sixty miles, and the gulf is that much shorter at the present
day (see note nnder scale on map, p. 100).

Western Asia : Babylonia

107

area of Wales.^ It lies in the Mediterranean belt of rainy winter
and dry summer, but the rainfall is so scanty (less than three
inches a year) that irrigation of the fields is required in order
to ripen the grain. When properly irrigated the Plain of Shinar
is prodigiously fertile, and. the chief source of wealth in ancient
Shinar was agriculture. This plain was the scene of the most
important and long-continued of those frequent struggles be-
tween the mountaineer and the nomad, of which we have
spoken (§ 133). We are now to follow the story of the first
series of those struggles, lasting something like a thousand
years, and ending about 2100 B.C.

Section 14. Rise of Sumerian Civilization and
Early Struggle of Sumerian and Semite

The mountaineers were not Semitic and show no relationship
to the Semitic nomads of the Arabian desert.'^ We are indeed
unable to connect the earliest of these mountain peoples with
any of the great racial groups known to us. We find them
shown on monuments of stone as having shaven heads and
wearing shaggy woolen kilts (Fig. 90). While they were still
using stone implements, some of these mountaineers, now
known as Sumerians, pushed through the passes of the eastern
mountains at a very early date. Long before 3000 B.C. they
had reclaimed the marshes around the mouths of the Two Rivers.

^ The current impressions of the cultivable area of Babylonia take no account
of the fact that the Babylonian plain was once much shorter than it is now (p. io6,
note), nor of the further fact that on the north of it Mesopotamia is a desert which,
moreover, does not belong to Babylonia. Only northern Mesopotamia is cultivable
(especially the upper valleys of the Balikh and the Khabur rivers). The modem
maps do not show this fact ; for example, the Century Atlas confines the desert
to the right bank of the Euphrates and does not admit it to Mesopotamia I The
usually accepted ideas of the cultivable area of Babylonia are therefore enor-
mously in excess of the actual area reached by irrigation.

^ On the other hand, although they were certainly white races, the moun-
taineers exhibited no relationship to the Indo-European group of peoples who
were already spreading through the country north and east of the Caspian at a
very early date. The Indo-European peoples, from whom we ourselves have
descended, are discussed in Section 21.

145. Un-
known race
of the early
mountaineers

io8

Ancient Times

146. Their
material civi-
lization

They gradually took possession of the southern section of the
Plain of Shinar, and the region they held at length came to be
called Sumer (see map, p. 106).

Their settlements of low mud-brick huts crept gradually north-
ward along the Euphrates (see map, p. 106); for the banks of
the Tigris were too high for convenient irrigation. They learned
to control the spring freshets with dikes, to distribute the waters

Fig. 'j^. Ancient Babylonian Seeder, or Machine Planter
(After Clay)

The seeder is drawn by a yoke of oxen, with their driver beside them.
Behind the seeder follows a man holding it by two handles. It is very
pointed and evidently makes a shallow trench in the soil as it moves.
Rising from the frame of the seeder is a vertical tube [a) on the top of
which is a funnel {b). A third man walking beside the seeder is shown
dropping the grain into this funnel with one hand ; with the other he
holds what is probably a sack of seed grain suspended from his shoul-
ders. The grain drops down through the tube and falls into the trench
made by the seeder. The scene is carved on a small stone seal

in irrigation trenches, and to reap large harvests of grain (Fig. 78).
They had already received barley and split wheat (p. 38, note),
which were their two chief grains as in Egypt ; and they called
the split wheat by its Egyptian name. They also already pos-
sessed cattle, sheep, and goats. Oxen drew the plow, and
donkeys pulled wheeled carts and chariots; the wheel as a
burden-bearing device appeared here for the first time.^ But

1 Probably earlier than the wheel in the Swiss lake-villages or on the chariot
race courses of the Late Stone Age (§ 39) in the West.

Western Asia : Babylonia

109

the horse was still unknown. Traffic with the upper river had
also brought in metal, probably from the Nile valley, and the
smith learned to fashion utensils of copper. But he had not

Fig. 79. Early Sumerian Clay Tablet wrni Cuxeiform
Writing (Twenty-eighth Century b.c.)

This tablet was written toward the close of the early period of the city-
kings (§ 162), a generation before the accession of Sargon I (§ 166).
It contains business accounts; the numbers can be recognized as
circles and other curved signs made with the circular uppei' end of the
scribe's stylus. The picture signs have at this time long since become
groups of wedges as shown in Fig. 80. (By permission of Dr. Hussey)

yet learned to harden the copper into bronze by admixture of
tin (§ 336).

Trade and government taught these people to make records 147. Rise of

11. -1 • / I- -r^' ^\ • 1 1 - e J Sumerian pic-
scratched in rude pictures (cf. Fig. 26) with the tip 01 a reed torial writing

on a fiat oval or disk of soft clay. When dried in the sun on clay

Ancient Times

148. Trans-
formation of
Sumerian pic-
ture signs
into cunei-
form signs,
and resulting
loss of the
pictures

such a clay record became very hard ; and if well baked in an

oven, it became an almost imperishable pottery tablet (Fig. 79).

^ „ On the earliest

surviving speci-
mens of such
tablets we can
still recognize
the original pic-
tures (Fig. 80)
which made up
the writing, just
as in Egypt.

The reed with
which the pic-
tures were made
usually had a
blunt, square-
tipped end.
The tablet was
held at an ob-
lique angle as
the stylus held
straight up was
applied to the
clay. We may
see a writer
so using it in
Fig. 1 01. The
writer did not
scratch the lines
of his picture ;
but in making
a single line he impressed one comer of the square tip of the
reed into the soft clay, and then raised it again to impress
another line in the same way. Owing to the oblique tilt of the

Foot turned
around in 2

c->

Donkey

Ifp

Bird; turned
over with feet
to the right

HUTi^

Fish

Star

mJP

Ox ; turned
over in 2

ti>

tJ>

Sun or Day

rt>

Grain ; top of

stalk turned

over

»»

VII

VIII

Fig. 80. Early Babylonian Signs showing

THEIR Pictorial Origin. (Chiefly from

Barton)

This list of eight signs shows clearly the pictures
from which the signs came. The oldest form is in
column I ; column 2 shows the departure from the
picture and the appearance of the signs as the lines
began to become wedges. In column j are the later
forms, consisting only of wedges and showing no
resemblance to the original picture. The original
forms of signs F, VI, and V7I, in column /, have not
yet been actually found, but they are assumed from
the existent forms shown in column 2

Western Asia : Babyloiiia 1 1 1

tablet, each line thus made was wider at one end than at the
other, and hence appeared triangular or wedge-shaped, thus >—
or y. Every picture or sign thus came to be made up of a
group of. wedge-shaped lines like >-^f-, which was once a star,
or CT-, once a foot (Fig. 80, V, j, and /, j). We therefore call
the system cuneiform (Latin, cuneus, meaning '' wedge "), or
wedge-form writing. Pictures made up of these wedge lines
became more and more difficult to recognize, especially as
speed in writing increased. All resemblance to the earlier
pictures finally disappeared.

The transition from the picture stage to the phonetic stage 149. Rise
(§53) was early made. Sumerian writing finally possessed over cuneifonn^
three hundred and fifty signs, but each such sign represented J^a^JJiccu
a syllable^ or a word, that is, a group of sounds ; the Sumerian neiform signs
system never developed an alphabet of the letters which made
up the syllables. That is, there were signs for syllables like kar
or ban^ but no signs for the letters k or r, b or n, which made
up such syllables. Hence we cannot insert here an alphabet, as
we did in discussing Egypt

These clay records show us that in measuring time the 150. The Su-

^ . ., , 1-1 merian moon-

Sumenan scribe began a" new month with every new moon, calendar;
and he made his year of twelve of these moon-months, y^ar-names
We remember (see § 60) that twelve such months fell far
short of making up a year. The scribe therefore slipped
in an extra month whenever he found that he had reached
the end of his calendar year a month or so ahead of the
seasons. This inconvenient and inaccurate calendar was in-
herited by the Jews and Persians, and is still used by the
oriental Jews and the Mohammedans. As in Egypt (Fig. ^t,),
the years themselves were not numbered, but each year was
named after some important event occurring in the course
of the year.

1 The only exceptions were later the vowels and some surviving pictorial
signs which served as graphic hints, like the Egyptian determinatives (Fig. 30),
On the story of how this writing was deciphered, see Section 25,

112 Ancient Times

151. Sume- The Sumerian system of numerals was not based on tens,
and weights but had the Unit sixty as a basis. A large number was given

as so many sixties, just as we employ a score (fourscore, five-
score). From this unit of sixty has descended our division of
the circle (six sixties) and of the hour and minute. The leading
unit of weight which they used was a mina^ divided into sixty
shekels. The mina had the weight of our pound, and traffic
with the East at last brought this measure of weight to us,
though under another name.

152. Nippur Almost in the center of the Plain of Shinar (see map, p. 106)
ceme7-*fts°"^ rose a great tower (Fig. 104). It was of baked brick, for there
temple-mount ^^g j^q stone in all Babylonia. This tower was the sacred

or tower, the -^

ancestor of mount of Enlil, the great Sumerian god of the air, at the

our church . . . . „ x , , ,

steeple ancient town of Nippur (rig. 84), a holy place greatly revered

among all the Sumerian communities. This temple-mount was
in shape a building tapering upward somewhat like a pyramid.
Around the outside of the square towerlike building was a broad
steep footway, which rose as it turned, till it reached the top
(see tailpiece, p. 170). The Sumerians erected this building at
Nippur, probably in the effort to give their god a home on
a mountain top such as he had once occupied, before they left
their mountain home to dwell on the Babylonian plain (see
§ 145). Other towns also adopted the idea, and the temple
tower at Babylon in later ages gave rise to the tale of the
Tower of Babel (or Babylon), as preserved by the Hebrews.
This Babylonian temple tower is the ancestor of our church
steeple (Fig. 272).
X53. The low But the tower was not itself the temple of the god, although '
ing bedside ^e had a shrine at the top. Alongside the tower there was a
tower '"^^^ small, low temple building serving as the temple proper. Such
sanctuaries have all perished in Babylonia, but enough remains
to show the simple character of this lower building (Fig. 206).
Approaching from the outside the visitor saw only bare walls
of sun-dried brick. These inclosed a court, behind which
was the sacred chamber. Indeed, it is clear that this lower

tower

Western Asia : Babylonia 113

dwelling of the god was simply a dweHing house like those
H of the townsmen (Fig. 82).

Around the temple and its mount were grouped the store- 154. The
houses and business offices of the temple, while a massive wall cSure;"the
forming an inclosure surrounded and protected the whole ^n^^heir^
(Fig. 84). Here ruled a wealthy priesthood. Assisted by a niler
group of scribes (Fig. loi), they rented and cared for the
temple lands and property. The king or ruler of the town at
their head was really also a priest, called a " patesi" (pronounced
pa-tay'see). His temple duties kept him about as busy as did
the task of ruling the community outside of the temple walls.

At this sanctuary under the shadow of the temple-mount 155. Sume-
the peasant brought in his offering, a goat and a jar of water "nd worfwp
containing a few green palm branches intended to symbolize
the vegetable life of the land, which the god maintained by the
annual rise of the river. The jar with the green palm branches
in it later became " the tree of life," a symbol often depicted
on the monuments of the land (Fig. 102). These gifts the
worshiper laid before the gods of earth, of air, of sky, or
sea, praying that there might be plentiful waters and gener-
ous harvests, but praying also for deliverance from the de-
stroying flood which the god had once sent to overwhelm
the land. Of this catastrophe the peasant's fathers had told
him, and the tradition of this flood finally passed over to
the Hebrews.

In one important matter of religion the Sumerians were very 156. sume-
diff^erent from the Egyptians. The dead were buried in the andbelSs

town, under the court of a house or the floor of a room about the
' hereafter

(Fig. 81), often without any tomb or coffin or much equip-
ment for the life beyond the grave. Of the next world they
had only vague and somber impressions, as a forbidding place
of darkness and dust beneath the earth, to which all men,
both good and bad, descended. Great cemeteries and elaborate
tomb equipment, such as those which t«ld us so much of early
Egypt, do not help us here in Babylonia.

114

Ancient Times

157. Sume-
rian house
and town

Around the temple inclosure extended the houses of the citi-
zens— bare rectangular structures of sun-dried brick (Fig. 82),
each with a court on the north side, and on the south side of
the court a main chamber from which the other rooms were

Fig. 81. An Early Babylonian Burial. (After Scheil)

Two large pottery jars laid with their open ends together served as a
coffin. Sometimes the body lay on the bottom of a rectangular grave
lined with sun-dried brick, forming a rough vault. The usual burial was
not in a cemetery but was in the house under the floor of the court or
some room. • Only one small cemetery, containing some thirty burials,
has as yet been found in Babylonia. Little, if any, equipment for the
hereafter was placed with the body, although some burials were sup-
plied with a few jars of pottery or copper and ornaments of silver,
gold, copper, or mother-of-pearl, with an occasional weapon or tool

entered. At first only a few hundred feet across, the town
slowly spread out, although it always remained of very limited
extent.^ Such a town usually stood upon an artificial mound
(Fig. 83), which it is important for us to examine.

1 There were no really large cities in Babylonia until the Chaldean Empire
(606-538 B.C., Section 20).

Western Asia : Babylonia

115

The ordinary building material of the entire ancient world
was sun-baked brick. The houses of the common people in
the Orient even at the present day are still built of such brick.
The walls of such houses in course of time are slowly eaten
away by the rains, till after a heavy rain an old house some-
times falls down. When this happens at the present day the
rubbish is leveled off and the house is rebuilt on top of it.
This modern practice has been going on for thousands of
years. It was this
kind of a Louse
whose fall Jesus
had in mind in his
parable (Matt, vii,
27). As this proc-
ess went on for
many centuries it
produced a high
mound of rubbish,
on which the town
stood.

Many a surviv-
ing oriental town
still stands on such
an ancient mound.
These mounds are
to be found in all
the ancient lands, like the mound of Troy (Fig. 149), that
of Jericho in Palestine (Fig. 124), or Elephantine in Egypt
(Fig. 211). Babylonia is to-day full of such great mounds
long since forsaken and deserted, and Fig. 83 shows us how
they look at the present day.

The clay tablets (Fig. 79) containing the household records,
letters, bills, receipts, notes, accounts, etc., which were in the
houses when they fell, were often covered by the falling walls,
and they still lie in the mound. In the temples and public

158. The

formation of
ancient city
mounds

Fig. 82. Restoration of an Early
Babylonian House. (After Koldewey)

The towns of the early Babylonians were small
and were chiefly made up of such sun-baked-
brick houses as these. Their simple adornment
consisted only of vertical panels and a stepped
(crenelated) edge at the top of the wall. The
doors were crowned by arches in contrast with
those of the Egyptians, who knew the arch but
preferred a horizontal line above all doorways

159. Distri-
bution of
such early
mounds
to-day

160. Con-
tents pre-
served in
such ancient
mounds

Ii6

Ancient Times

buildings the documents covered up were often important gov-
ernment records ; while in the dwelling or offices of the ruler
they were often narratives of wars and conquests. Some-
times the ruler placed accounts of his buildings, his victo-
ries, and other great deeds deep in the foundations of his
buildings in order that later rulers might find them. Besides

Fig. 83. Mound covering a Portion of the Ancient Baby-
lonian City of Nippur

The bare ground in front of us now showing a scanty growth of desert
shrubs once formed a court, or open square, for public business, unload-
ing caravans, etc. The great mound beyond contains the chief temple
buildings of Nippur, occupying the south corner of the temple inclosure.
Its highest portion covers the temple mount (§ 152), of which only the
lower parts still survive under the mound. In the buildings covered by
these mounds lived the scribes (clerks) and officials who carried on the
temple and government business of this town nearly five thousand years
ago (§ 154)- See also Fig. 84 for a view from the top of the temple-
mount. (By courtesy of the University Museum, Philadelphia)

all these written records, many articles of household use or
sculptured works of art still lie hidden in such mounds. Here
too lie the gaunt and somber remains of the early Babylonian
buildings themselves (Fig. 84). But these town buildings have
fallen into such ruin that we cannot make them tell us a story
such as we found in Egypt. Nevertheless, a city mound is a
rich storehouse of ancient Babylonian civilization, the story of
which we are now to follow.

Fig. 84. Excavation of the Ruins of Ancient Nippur

These ruins were excavated by the University of Pennsylvania Expedi-
tion in three campaigns between 1889 and 1900. This view shows the
work of excavation going on. The earth (once sun-dried brick) is taken
out in baskets and carried away by a long line of native laborers, who
empty their baskets at the far end of an ever-growing bank of exca-
vated earth. The ruinous buildings, once entirely covered (Fig. 83),
are slowly exposed, and among them, often clay tablets or objects of
pottery, stone, or metal. Thus are recovered the records and antiquities
of ancient Babylonia (§ 161). They he at different levels, the oldest
things nearer the bottom and the later ones higher up. This is a
view seen from the top of the highest mound in Fig. 83. Beyond the
laborers the view to the horizon gives a good idea of the flat Babylonian
plain. Only two generations ago the monuments and records of Baby-
lonia and Assyria preserved in Europe could all be contained in a
show case only a few feet square. Since 1840, however, archaeological
excavation, as we call such digging, has recovered great quantities of
antiquities and records. Such work is now slowly recovering for us the
story of the ancient world. (Drawn from a photograph furnished by
courtesy of the University Museum, Philadelphia)

117

Ii8

Ancient Times

i6i. Early
vSumerianart:
sculpture,
seal-cutting,
metal work

At the bottom of these mounds, reaching back to 3000 B.C.,
lie the works of the Sumerian sculptor in stone. They were in

the beginning very rough
and crude. The demand
for personal seals cut in
stone (Fig. 86) soon de-
veloped a beautiful art
of engraving tiny figures
on a hard stone surface
(Fig. T06, A), We call
a craftsman who could
do such work a lapidary.
The early Sumerian lapi-
daries soon became the
finest craftsmen of the
kind in the ancient ori-
ental world, and their
work has had an influ-
ence on our own deco-
rative art which has not
yet disappeared (see de-
scription. Fig. 85). The
Sumerian craftsmen also
did skillful work in metal,
sometimes beautifully dec-
orated (Fig. 85).

Fig. 85.

Silver Vase of a Sume-
rian City-King

This vase, the finest piece of metal work
from early Babylonia, is adorned with
two broad bands of engraving extending
entirely around it. They furnish an ex-
cellent example of early Sumerian decorative art. In the broader band
we see a lion-headed eagle* clutching the backs of two lions, which in
their turn are biting two ibexes. This balanced arrangement of animal
figures in violent action was a discovery of Sumerian art about 3000 b. c.
The eagle and the lions here form the symbol, or arms, of the Sume-
rian city-kingdom of Lagash. Such symbols made up of balanced
pairs of animal figures passed over to Europe, where they are still used
in decorative art and in the heraldic symbols, or arms, of the kings
and nations. The eagle still appears in the arms of Russia, Austria,
Prussia, and other European nations, and finally* reached us as our
"American" eagle, really the eagle of Lagash, five thousand years ago

Western Asia : Babylonia

119

In all these monuments and the writings on clay tablets
we find revealed to us the life which once filled the streets
of the ancient Babylonian towns now
sleeping under the silent mounds. We
see a class of free landholding citizens
in the town, working their lands with'
numerous slaves and trading with cara-
vans and small boats up and down the
river. Over these free, middle-class folk
were the officials and priests, the aristo-
crats of the town. Such a community,
owning the lands for a few miles round
about the town, formed the political
unit, or state, which we call a city-
kingdom. We may therefore call the
first three centuries after about 3050 B.C.
the Age of the Sumerian City-Kingdoms.
The leading Sumerian city-kingdoms
formed a group in the South, occupying
the land of Sumer (see map, p. 106).
These towns are still mafked for us by
a straggling line of mounds distributed
along the Euphrates. In spite of oppres-
sive and dishonest taxation, such a com-
munity owed much to its ruler, or patesi
(§ 154). He was useful in a number of
matters, but chiefly in two ways : in war
and in irrigation. The irrigation canals

162. Early
Sumerian
society and
state ; the
Age of the
City-King-
doms (about
3050-2750

B.C.)

163. The Su
merian city-
kingdoms
and their
patesis

Fig. 86. An Early

Sumerian Cylinder

Seal

Instead of signing his
name to a clay-tablet

document, the early Sumerian rolled over the soft clay a little stone
roller, or cylinder, engraved with beautiful pictures (Figs. 90, 91,
and 106, A) and sometimes also bearing the owner's name (Fig. 91).
The impression left by the roller in the soft clay served as a sig-
nature. They have been found in great numbers in the ruins of
Babylonia. By a study of these works the growth and decline of Baby-
lonian art may be traced for twenty-five hundred years, from about
3000 B.C. to about 500 B.C. The picture shows end view and side view

I20

Ancient Times

and dikes required constant repairs. The planting and harvest
ing of the fields would have stopped and the whole community
would have starved if the ruler had ceased his constant over-
sight of the dikes and canals and the water supply had stopped.

Fig. 87. A Sumerian City-King leading a Phalanx of his
Troops (about 2900. b.c.)

The king himself, whose face is broken off from the stone, marches at
the right, heading his troops, who follow in a compact group. This is
the earliest example of grouping men together in a mass, forming a sin-
gle fighting unit, called a phalanx. This must have required a long drill
and discipline, after many centuries of loose, irregular, scattered fight-
ing (Fig. 88). This was the first chapter in the long history of the art
of war, and it took place in Asia. Such discipline was unknown at this
time in Egypt. These Sumerian troops have their spears set for the
charge, but they carry no bows. Tall shields cover their entire bodies,
and they wear close-fitting helmets, probably of leather. They are
marching over dead bodies (symbolical of the overthrow of the enemy).
The scene is carved in stone and is a good example of the rude Sume-
rian sculpture in Babylonia in the days of the Great Pyramid and the
remarkable portrait sculpture of Egypt (contrast with Figs. 52 and 53)

164. The As to war, we can watch more than one of these city rulers

th^Sumemn niarching out at the head of troops heavily armed with shield

city-kingdoms ^^^ spear (but without the bow) and marshaled in massive

phalanx (Fig. 87). We found on the Nile the earliest highly

Western Asia : Babylonia

121

developed arts of peace ; we find here among the Sumerians
the earliest highly developed art of war in the history of man.
When the townspeople heard that a neighboring city-kingdom
was trying to take possession of a strip of their land, they
were glad to follow the patesi's leadership in order to drive
out the invaders. As such occurrences were common, the

Fig. 88.

Semitic Bowmen of Early Babylonia fighting in
Open Order

The nomads had no organization and no discipline ; each man leaped
about in the fray as he pleased, and the fight was a loose group of
single combats between two antagonists. This loose rough-and-tumble
fighting was the earliest method of warfare, before men learned to train
and drill themselves to fight in groups or masses. The Sumerians were
the earliest men who took this step (Fig. 87). The disciplined Sume-
rian townsmen were therefore long superior to these disorganized
nomads of the desert along the Fertile Crescent

early history of Sumer for some three centuries (about 3050
to 2750 B.C.) was largely made up of the ever-changing
fortunes of these city-kingdoms in war.

But while the city-kingdoms of Sumer were thus often fight- 165. Earliest
ing among themselves, they were also called upon to meet an sumerians
enemy from the outside. The Semitic nomads of the desert and Semites
(§ '^ZS) early began to settle north of Sumer. This region
called Akkad (see map, p. 106), where the Two Rivers are

122

Ancient Times

closest together, was on the main road from the Two Rivers to
the eastern mountains, and the leading Semitic tribe there bore
the name Akkadians. These desert wanderers had never
learned discipline and drill in war like the Sumerians. They
depended on their skill as archers, and they gave battle there-
fore at a distance. Or if they came to close quarters, they
fought single-handed, in open order (Fig. 88). Their thin and
open line was evidently at first no match for the heavy phalanx
of the Sumerians. Thus two hostile races faced each other on
the Plain of Shinar: in the North the half-settled Semitic
nomads of Akkad, and in the South the one-time mountaineers
of Sumer. The long struggle between them was only one of
the many struggles between nomad and mountaineer along the
Fertile Crescent (§ 133).

Section 15. The First Semitic Triumph:
THE Age of Sargon

166. The
first Semitic
triumph ;
Sargon of
Akkad and
his line
(2750-2550

B.C.)

About 2750, that is, about the middle of the twenty-eighth
century B.C., there arose in Akkad a Semitic chieftain named
Sargon. So skillful in war was he, that he succeeded in scatter-
ing the compact Sumerian spearmen, and making himself lord
of all the Plain of Shinar. The old Sumerian city-kings were de-
feated and the Sumerian towns down to the mouths of the Two
Rivers submitted to him. He led his swift Akkadian archers
from the eastern mountains of Elam westward up the Euphrates
to the shores of the Mediterranean. There, as we remember,
the Pharaoh's galleys (Fig. 41) were already moored in the
harbors of the Phoenician cities. Some day chance may dis-
close to us the messages, written on clay tablets, which now
probably passed between the lord of the Euphrates and the
lord of the Nile living in the splendors of his pyramid-city at
Gizeh. Sargon was the first great leader in the history of the
Semitic race, and he was the first ruler to build up a great
nation in Western Asia, reaching from Elam (Fig. 89, and

Western Asia: Babylonia . 123

map, p. 100) to the Mediterranean and far up the Two
Rivers northward. His splendid conquests made an impres-
sion upon the Tigris-Euphrates world which never faded, and
he left them to his sons, one of whom, Naram-Sin, even
extended them.

Sargon's conquests forced his nomad tribesmen (the Akka- 167. The
dians) to make a complete change in their manner of life. The Akkadians
once wandering shepherds were obliged to drop their unsettled l^^erian
life and to take up fixed abodes. We may best picture the change civilization
if we say that they forsook their tents (headpiece, p. 100) and
built houses of sun-dried brick (Fig. 82), which could not be
picked up every morning and set up somewhere else at night
At first they did not even know how to write, and they had no
industries (§ 136). Some of them now learned to write their
Semitic tongue by using the Sumerian wedge-form signs for
the purpose. Then it was, therefore, that a Semitic language
began to be written for the first time. These former nomads
had never before attempted to manage the affairs of settled
communities, — such business as we call government admin-
istration. All this too they were now obliged to learn from
the Sumerians. The Semitic Akkadians therefore adopted the
Sumerian calendar, weights and measures, system of numerals
and business methods. With the arts of peace the Akkadians
also gained those of war. They learned to make helmets of
leather and copper weighing over two pounds. These are the
earliest-known examples of the use of metal as a protection in
war. From such beginnings as these were to come the steel-clad
battleships and gun turrets of modern times.

Among other things the Akkadians learned also the art of 168. The
sculpture, but they soon far surpassed their Sumerian teachers, frtof the"Age
The relief of Naram-Sin (Fig. 89) belongs among the real ofSargon
triumphs of art in the early world — especially interesting as
the first great work of art produced by the Semitic race. The
beautiful Sumerian art of seal-cutting, the Akkadians now carried
to a wonderful degree of perfection (Figs. 90, 91, and 106, A).

Fig 89. A Kixg of Akkad storming a Fortress -the

Earliest Great Semitic Work of Art (about 2700 B.C.)
King Naram-Sin of Akkad (probably one of the sons of Sargon I § .66)
has pursued the enemy into a mountain stronghold m Ela™, H.s hero c
figure towers above his pygmy enem.es, each one of "h"" ha tod h^
eyes on the conqueror, awaiting his signal of mercy. Jhe sculptor, w^th
fine insight, has depicted the dramatic instant when the kmg lowers h'^
weapon^s the sign that he grants the conquered the.r hves^ Compare
the superiority of this Semitic sculpture of Akkad oyer the Sumenan
art of two centuries earlier (Fig. b?)
"4

Western Asia : Babylonia

125

Thus the life of the desert Semite mingled with that of the 169. Com-

non-Semitic mountaineer on the Babylonian plain, much as sunferiSi?

Norman and English mingled in England. On the streets and ^"^ ^^^^'

in the market places of the Euphrates towns, where once the (Semites)
bare feet, clean-shaven heads, and beardless faces of the Sume-
rian townsmen were the only ones to be seen, there was now a

Fig; 90. A Semitic Prince and his Sumerian Secretary
(Twenty-seventh Century b.c.)

The third figure (wearing a cap) is that of the prince, Ubil-Ishtar, who
is brother of the king. He is a Semite, as his beard shows. Three of his
four attendants are also Semites, with beards and long hair; but one of
them (just behind the prince) is beardless and shaven-headed (§ 169).
He is the noble's secretary, for being a Sumerian he is skilled in writing.
His name " Kalki " we learn from the inscription in the corner, which
reads, " Ubil-Ishtar, brother of the king ; Kalki, the scribe, thy servant."
This inscription is in the Semitic (Akkadian) tongue of the time and
illustrates how the Semites harve learned the Sumerian signs for writing
(§ 167). The scene is engraved on Kalki's personal seal (Fig. 86), and
the above drawing shows the impression on the soft clay when the seal
was rolled over it. It is a fine example of the Babylonian art of seal-
cutting in hard stone (§ 168). The original is in the British Museum

plentiful sprinkling of sandaled feet, of dark beards, and heavy
black locks hanging down over the shoulders of the swarthy
Semites of Akkad (Fig. 90). The shaven Sumerian served
in the army with shield and lance (Fig. 87) along with his
bearded Semitic lord carrying only the bow (Fig. 88). The
Semitic noble could not do without the deft Sumerian clerk,
for we see the king's brother with his Semitic attendants, fol-
lowed also by his shaven-headed Sumerian secretary (Fig. 90).

126

Ancient Times

170. The
Kings of
Sumer and
Akkad (from
the twenty-
fifth to the
twenty-third
century b.c.)

171. Thought
and myth
under the
Kings of
Sumer and
Akkad: the
source of
life; the
Etana story

172. Death
and eternal
life : the
Adapa story

Section 16. Union of Sumerians and Semites : the
Kings of Sumer and Akkad

When at last the Semites of Akkad were enfeebled by the
town life which they had adopted, the line of Sargon declined.
As a result the Sumerian cities of the South were able to recover
control of the country not long after 2500 B.C. Headed by the
ancient city of Ur, three of the old Sumerian cities gained the
leadership one after another. But the Semites of Akkad were
henceforth recognized as part of the unified nation on the
ancient Plain of Shinar, which now for the first time gained a
national name. It was called " Sumer and Akkad." The kings
of this age, who called themselves " Kings of Sumer and
Akkad," were both Sumerians and Semites. They have left us
no great buildings or imposing monuments, but the new United
States of Sumer and Akkad prospered greatly and survived for
over three centuries. For the first time literature flourished.

In simple stories these men of the Tigris-Euphrates world
now began to answer those natural questions regarding life
and death, which always rose in the minds of early men. They
finally told of the wonderful adventures of the shepherd Etana,
when his flocks were stricken with unfruitfulness, and no more
lambs were born. Etana then mounted on the back of an eagle
(Fig. 91) and rose to the skies in search of the herb in which
was the source of life. But as he neared his goal he was hurled
to the earth again. This is the earliest tale of flying by man.

The strange mystery of death led to the story of the fisher-
man Adapa. When the South-wind goddess overturned his
boat, Adapa flew into a rage and broke her wing. Thereupon
he was summoned to the throne of the Sky-god, whose wrath
was at length appeased so that he offered to Adapa the bread
and water of life. This would have made him immortal and
destroyed death. But suspicious and forewarned of danger, the
unhappy Adapa refused the food and thus lost both for himself
and for mankind the treasure of immortal life.

Western Asia: Babylonia 127

In the same way they told how the gigantic hero Gilgamesh, 173. immoi^
after many mighty deeds and strange adventures (Fig. 1 06, A), ciig^mesh
failed to gain immortal life. Among all these heroes, indeed, there ^^^^ ; *^^
was but one who was granted endless life. Of him there was
a strange tale, telling how, together with his wife, he survived

mm\mimmwim\m]m\mMmmwm\]]Mm\\m^^^^^

Fig. 91. The Flight of Etana to the Skies

At the right Etana sits on the back of the flying eagle (§ 171), with his
arm around the bird's neck. Above him is the moon, while below, two
dogs look up after him, barking. At the left approaches a goatherd
driving three goats; before them walks a man with an object shaped
like an umbrella. All, including the goats, are looking up in amaze-
ment at the flight of Etana. Over the goatherd a potter is making jars,
and at the right of his jars a squatting baker is making round loaves.
The scene is carved on a cylinder seal (Fig. 85), and our drawing shows
the impression on the soft clay when the seal is rolled over it. It is a
fine specimen of the Babylonian lapidary's skill

the great deluge (§ 155) in a large ship. Then the gods
carried them both away to blessedness. But not even the
kings of Sumer and Akkad were supposed to enter a blessed
hereafter, much less the common people. Many of these stories
of creation and flood were afterward known to the Hebrews.

Mingled with touches from the life of both Sumerian and
Semite, these tales now circulated in both the Semitic and

128

Ancient Times

174. Decline Sumerian languages. It was the old Sumerian tongue, however,
which was regarded as the more sacred. It later continued in
use as a kind of sacred language, like Latin in the Roman
Catholic Church. The old Sumerian towns were now rapidly
declining (twenty-third century B.C.), but religious stories were
written in Sumerian, centuries after it was no longer spoken.

Section 17. The Second Semitic Triumph : the
Age of Hammurapi and After

As the " Kings of Sumer and Akkad " slowly weakened, a
new tribe of Semites began descending the Euphrates, just as
the men of Akkad had done under Sargon (§ 166). These
newcomers were the Semitic Amorites of Syria by the Mediter-
ranean (§ 141). About a generation before 2200 B.C. this new
tribe of western Semites seized the litde town of Babylon, which
was at that time still an obscure village on the Euphrates. The
Amorite kings of Babylon at once began to fight their way
toward the leadership of Sumer and Akkad.

After a century of such warfare there came to the throne
as the sixth in the Amorite line of kings at Babylon one
Hammurapi, who was flourishing by 2100 B.C. In the now
feeble old Sumerian cities of the South, Hammurapi found the
warlike Elamites who had come in from Elam in the eastern
mountains. They fought him for over thirty years before he
succeeded in driving them out and capturing the Sumerian
towns. Victorious at last, Hammurapi then made his city of
Babylon for the first time supreme throughout the land. It was
therefore not until after 2100 B.C. that Babylon finally gained
such a position of power and influence that we may call the
land "Babylonia."

Hammurapi survived his triumph twelve years, and in those
years of peace, as he had done in war, he proved himself the
ablest of his line. He was the second great Semitic ruler, as
Sargon had been the first. Only a few generations earlier his

Western Asia : Babylenia 1 29

ancestors, like those of Sargon, had been drifting about the
desert, without any organization. He still betrayed in his
shaven upper lip, a deseVt custom, the evidence of his desert
ancestry (Fig. 93). But he now put forth his powerful hand
upon the teeming life of the Babylonian towns, and with a
touch he brought in order and system such as Babylonia had
never seen before. Two chief sources of information have sur-
vived over four thousand years to reveal to us the deeds and
the character of this great king : these are a group of fifty-five
of his letters, and the splendid monument bearing his laws.

Hammurapi's letters afford us for the first time in history a 178. Hammu-
glimpse into the busy life of a powerful oriental ruler in Asia. Sei/dkta-'^^
They disclose him to us sitting in the executive office of his ^^^^^J^^i^n
palace at Babylon with his secretary at his side. In short, clear
sentences the king begins dictating his brief letters, conveying
his commands to the local governors of the old Sumerian cities
which he now rules. The secretary draws a reed stylus (Fig. loi)
from a leathern holder at his girdle, and quickly covers the
small clay tablet (Fig. 92) with its lines of wedge groups.
The writer then sprinkles over the soft wet tablet a handful
of dry powdered clay. This is to prevent the clay envelope,
which he now deftly wraps about the letter, from adhering
to the written surface. On this soft clay envelope he writes
the address and sends the letter out to be put into the furnace
and baked.

Messengers constantly hand him similarly closed letters. 179. Hammu-
This secretary of Hammurapi is a trusted confidential clerk. Station "^^
He therefore breaks to pieces the hard clay envelopes in the
king's presence and reads aloud to him letters from his officials
all over the kingdom. The king quickly dictates his replies.
The flood has obstructed the Euphrates between Ur and
Larsa, and of course a long string of boats have been tied up
and are waiting. The king's reply orders the governor of
Larsa to clear the channel at the earliest moment and make it
navigable again.

130 Ancient Times

180. Hammu- The king is much interested in his vast flocks of sheep, as
feasts idThe ^^ the nomad instinct had not altogether vanished from the
calendar blood of his line. He orders the officials to appear in Babylon

to celebrate the spring sheep-shearing as if it were a great
feast. The calendar has slipped forward a whole month in
advance of the proper season (§ 150), and the king sends out
a circular letter to all the governors, saying, " Since the year
hath a deficiency, let the month which is now beginning be
registered as a second (month of) Elul."

181. Hammu- But he wams the governor that all taxes otherwise falling:

rapi's letters :,.,.,

delinquents duc withm the next month are not to be deferred by this
insertion. Delinquent tax gatherers are firmly reminded of
their obligations and called upon to settle without delay.
Prompt punishment of an official guilty of bribery is author-
ized, and we can see the king's face darken as he dictates the
order for the arrest of three officials of the palace gate who
have fallen under his displeasure. More than once the gov-
ernor of Larsa is sharply reminded of the king's orders and
bidden to see that they are carried out at once.

182. Hammu- Many a petitioner who has not been able to secure justice
justice and'^ before the board of judges in his home city is led in before
religion ^^ king, confident of just treatment; and he is not disap-
pointed (Fig. 92). The chief of the temple bakers finds that
royal orders to look after a religious feast at Ur will call him
away from the capital city just at the time when he has an
important lawsuit coming on. He easily obtains an order from
the king postponing the lawsuit. The king's interest in the
religious feast is here as much concerned as his sense of
justice, for many of the letters which he dictates have to
do with temple property and temple administration, in which
he constantly shows his interest.

183. The With his eye thus upon every comer of the land, alert.

Hammurapi vigorous, and full of decision, the great king finally saw how-
necessary it was to bring into uniformity all the various and
sometimes conflicting laws and business customs of the land.

Western Asia : Babylonia

131

He therefore collected all the older written laws and usages
of business and social life, and arranged them systematically.
He improved them or added
new laws where his own judg-
ment deemed wise, and he
then combined them into a
great code or body of laws.
It was written, not in Sume-
rian, as some of the old laws
were, but in the Semitic
speech of the Akkadians and
Amorites. He then had it
engraved upon a splendid
shaft of stone. At the top
was a sculptured scene in
which the king was shown
receiving the law from the
Sun-god (Fig. 93). The new
code was then set up in the
temple of the great god Mar-
duk in Babylon. This shaft
has survived to our day, the
oldest preserved code of an-
cient law. Fragments of other
copies on clay tablets, the cop-
ies used by the local courts,
have also been found.

Hammurapi's code insists
on justice to the widow, the
orphan, and the poor; but it
also allows many of the old
and naive ideas of justice to
stand. Especially prominent is
the principle that the punish-
ment for an injury should

Fig. 92. A Letter WRriTEN
BY Hammurapi, King of Baby-
lonia (ABOUT 2100 B.C.)

One of the fifty-five clay-tablet let-
ters of this king (§ 178) which have
survived four thousand years. The
writing, done while the clay was still
soft, shows clear signs of the speed
with which the writer, Hammurapi's
secretary, took down the king's die- J^^;„^PSp?s
tation (§ 178). The tablet has been code; posi-
baked. It was also inclosed in a tion of woman
baked-clay envelope bearing the ad-
dress, but this has been broken off
and thrown away (§ 179). This
letter orders a local governor to
hear the appeal of an official who
thinks himself unjustly defeated in
law (§ 182)

132

Ancient Times

require the infliction of the same injury on the culprit — the
principle of " an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Injus-
tice often resulted. For exam-
ple, when a house fell (§ 158)
and killed the son of the
householder, the guilty builder
must also suffer the loss of his
son, and- the innocent son was 1
therefore condemned to die.
Marriage was already a relation
requiring legal agreements be-
tween the man and his wife, and
these are carefully regulated in
Hammurapi's code. Indeed the
position of women in this early
Babylonian world, as in Egypt,
was a high one. Women en-
gaged in business on their
own account, and even became

* A shaft of stone (diorite) nearly
8 feet high, on which the laws are
engraved, extending entirely around
the shaft and occupying over thirty-
six hundred lines. Above is a fine
relief showing King Hammurapi
standing at the left, receiving the
laws from the Sun-god seated at the
right. Hammurapi's shaven upper
lip proclaiming him a man of the
Syrian desert (§ 177) is here in the
shadow and cannot be seen. The
flames rising from the god's shoul-
ders indicate who he is. The flames
on the left shoulder are commonly
shown in the current textbooks as
part of a staff in the god's left hand.
This is an error. This scene is an
impressive work of Semitic art, six
hundred years later than Fig. 89.

Fig. 93. The Laws of Ham-
murapi, THE Oldest Surviv-
ing Code of Laws (2100 b.c.)*

Western Asia: Babylonia 133

professional scribes. They must have attended such a school
as that described below (Fig. 95).

Thus regulated, the busy Babylonian communities prospered 185. indus-
as never before. Their products were chiefly agricultural, Hammurapi's
especially grain and dates ; but they had also flocks and herds, *^"^^
leather and wool. The weaving of wool was a great in-
dustry, for woolen clothing was commonly worn in Western
Asia. Copper had been displaced by bronze (§ 146), and
one document refers to iron, but this metal was still much
too rare to play any part in industry. Iron for common
use was still a thousand years in the future in Hammurapi's
time (§§ 360, 392).

A standing army kept the frontiers safe and quiet, and the 186. Baby-
slow donkey caravans of the Babylonian merchants, plodding ^^ce \n^'
from town to town, were able to penetrate far into the sur- Hammurapi's
rounding communities. They were so common on the upper
Euphrates (map, p. 100) that a town there was called Haran
(or Kharan) from the Babylonian word kharanu, meaning
"journey." Many a courtyard was piled high with bales, each
bearing a clay seal with the impression of the merchant's
name (cf. Fig. 91). These clay seals, broken away as the
bales were opened, to-day lie in the rubbish of the Babylonian
towns, where the modern excavator picks them up, still dis-
playing on one side the merchant's name and on the other
the impression of the cord which bound the bale.

Such seals and the clay-tablet bills which accompanied the 187. Spread
bales had to be read by many a local merchant in the towns wrking^ ^^^
of Syria and beyond the passes of the northern mountains. '!?J"°"^*^ » .

-' -' ^ Western Asia

Thus Babylonian cuneiform writing slowly made its way
through Western Asia, and the merchants of Syria began to
write bills and letters of their own on clay tablets (see § 291
and Fig. 126). Hammurapi's commercial influence was widely
felt in the West. The memory of his name had not wholly died
out in Syria-Palestine in Hebrew days over a thousand years
after his death.

134 Ancient Times

188. The While the Babylonian merchants were a powerful class and
ceme^of ^ were even called the "rulers" in some communities, it was the
business temples with their large possessions which were the center of

business life. * They loaned money like banks, dealt in mer-
chandise, and controlled extensive lands.

189. Money There was as yet no coined money, but lumps of silver

of a given weight circulated so commonly that values were
given in weight of silver. Thus a man could say that an
ox was worth so many ounces of silver, only he would use
"shekels" in place of ounces. Loans were common, though the
rate of interest was high : twenty per cent a year, payable in
monthly installments. Gold was also in sparing use, for it was
fifteen times as valuable as silver.

190. Babyio- These commercial interests were the leading influences in
Tn^the Age^of Babylonian life, even in religion. The temples, as we have
Hammurapi g^id, had a large place in business life ; and religion never pro-
claimed the rights of the poor and the humble, nor championed
their cause against the rich and powerful. To be sure, the
ritual of the temple contained some prayers which indicated
a sense of sin and unworthiness. But the advantages of
religion consisted in being able to obtain substantial benefits
from the gods and fo avoid their displeasure.

191. Marduk The people still worshiped the old Sumerian gods, but the

political leadership of Babylon had enabled the men of that
city to put their Semitic god Marduk at the head of all the
gods, and in the old mythical stories (§§ 171-173) they in-
serted the name Marduk where once the ancient Sumerian god
Enlil had played the leading part. At the same time the great
Asiatic goddess of love, Ishtar, rose to be the leading goddess
of Babylon. She was later to pass over to the Mediterranean
to become the Aphrodite of the Greeks (§ 420).

192. Babyio- Among the benefits granted by the gods was the ability to
of reading foretell the future. This art we call divination, and the priest
divination' ^^ ^^^ practiced it was a diviner. The skilled diviner could inter-
pret the mysterious signs on the liver of the sheep (Fig. 94)

Western Asia : Babylonia

135

slain in sacrifice, and his anxious inquirers believed that he

could thus reveal the unknown future. He could note the

positions of the stars

and the planets, and

he could thus discern

the decrees of the

gods for the future.

These practices later

spread westward. We

shall find the reading

of the liver a common

practice in Rome (Fig.

234), and star-reading

later developed, under

the Chaldeans (§ 238),

into the science of

astrology, the mother

of astronomy. It was

taken up by the Greeks

and has even survived

into our own day.

To train such men
and to furnish clerks
for business and gov-
ernment, schools were
necessary. These were
usually in or connected
with the temple. A
schoolhouse of the time
of Hammurapi has ac-
tually been uncovered
(Fig. 95), with the clay-tablet exercises of the boys and girls of
four thousand years ago still lying on the floor. They show
how the child began his long and difficult task of learning to
understand and to write three or four hundred different signs.

Fig. 94. Ancient Babylonian Divi-
ner's Baked-Clay Model of Sheep's
Liver (about 2100 b.c.)

The surface of the model is marked with

lines and holes, indicating the places where

the diviner must look for the mysterious

signs which disclosed the future. These

signs were of course the highly varied

natural shapes and markings to be observed

in any sheep's liver. But the Babylonian

believed that these things were signs placed 193, Edu-

on the liver by the god to whom the sheep cation : a

had been given, when it was slain as a sac- Babylonian

■n rr.1 • e ^ .1 SChOOlhoUSe

rince. Ihe meanmg of each part ot the
liver is here written in cuneiform in the
proper place. The whole forms a kind of
map of the surface and shape of the liver
with written explanations. Absurd as all
this seems to us, the art of reading the
future in this way was believed in by millions
of people, and finally reached Europe
(§ 793 and Fig. 234)

194* Educa-
tion : learn-
ing to write

136

Ancient Times

The pupil's slate was a soft clay tablet, on which he could
rub out his exercises at any time by smoothing off the surface
with a flat piece of wood or stone. With his reed stylus in his
hand, he made long rows of single wedges in three positions,
horizontal, vertical, and oblique (see § 148). When he could

Fig. 95. An Ancient Babylonian Schoolhouse in the Days
OF Hammurapi (about 2100 B.C.). (After Scheil)

On the right is the ground plan of the schoolhouse, which was about
55 feet square. The children went in at the door {A), across the end of
the long room {B) where the doorkeeper sat and perhaps kept a clay-
tablet tardy-list of the pupils who came late. Then the children entered
a court (C) which was open to the sky, and we may suppose that they
separated here, the big boys and girls going into their own rooms,
while the little ones went into others. Somewhere in the schoolhouse,
and probably in the court (6'), was a pile or box of soft clay, where a
boy who had already filled his clay-tablet slate with wedge-marks (§ 194)
could quickly make himself a new slate by flattening a ball of soft clay.
On the left we look through one of the doors of this oldest schoolhouse
in the world, as it appeared on the day when it was uncovered by the
French in 1894. The native Arab workmen who uncovered it stand in
the doorway. The walls of sun-dried brick are still 8 or 9 feet high

make the single wedges neatly enough, the master set him at
work on the wedge-groups forming the signs themselves.
Lastly, he was able to undertake words and simple phrases,
leading up to sentences and quotations from old documents.
One of the tablets found in the schoolhouse contains a proverb
which shows how highly the Babylonians valued the art of

Western Asia: Babylonia 137

writing. It reads : " He who shall excel in tablet- writing shall
shine like the sun." Doubtless many a Babylonian lad was
encouraged in the long and wearisome task of learning to write,
by copying this enthusiastic sentiment.

Of the higher life of Babylon in this age as expressed in 195. Scanty
great works of art and architecture, very little has survived on art"fTom°
the spot. Indeed, the city of Hammurapi has perished utterly. Hammurapi's
Not a single building erected by him now stands. Enough re- tecture
mains in other old Babylonian mounds to show us that Western
Asia was still without the colonnades already so common on
the Nile (Fig. 56). In these Babylonian buildings the arch
for the first time assumed a prominent place on the front
of a structure. As a result of its early prominence here,
the arch traveled slowly westward into Europe (§787 and
Fig. 248). The chief architectural creation of early Babylonia
was the temple tower, which we have already seen (Fig. 104);
but of the temples themselves no surviving example has
been excavated.^

There seems to have been no painting in Hammurapi's time. 196. Scuip-
The sculptured scene in which Hammurapi receives the law Hammurapi's
from the Sun-god (Fig. 93) is a work displaying a certain fine *^"^^
dignity and impressiveness. But this scene shows us how
Babylonian custom now muffled the human form in heavy
woolen garments, so that the sculptor had little opportunity to
depict the beauty of the human figure (contrast Fig. 89).
Portraiture was scarcely able to distinguish one individual from
another. The beautiful art of seal-cutting, the greatest art of
the Babylonians, had noticeably declined since the wonderful
works of Sargon's age (Fig. 106, A). Although it was commer-
daily so successful, yet in art the great age of Hammurapi
was already "declining.

1 The common restorations to be found in our current histories of art and
architecture, showing us complete early Babylonian temples, rest entirely on
imagination, and are pure guesswork. The temples of late Babylonia (Chaldean
Empire, Section 20) have been excavated and restored by the German Expedition
(Fig. 206).

138 Ancient Times

197. Earliest The decline in art was perhaps a prophecy of what was to
the domestic come, for the Babylonian nation which Hammurapi had so
horse in splendidly organized and started on its way did not survive
(2100 B.C.) ; his death. The mountaineers, whom Hammurapi had driven
Hammurapi's out of the Sumerian cities (§ 176), again descended upon the
^*"^ Babylonian plain, as the Sumerians had done so long before.

They probably brought with • them a newcomer even more
important than themselves ; for, as they began to appear more
and more often on the streets of the Babylonian towns, they
seem to have led with them a strange animal, for which the
Babylonians had no name. They called it the " animal of the
mountains." Thus about four thousand years ago the tamed
horse appeared for the first time in a civilized community,
and began to play that important part in war and industry
which he has played ever since.-^ In this continuation of the
age-long struggle between nomad and mountaineer on the
Babylonian plain, even the line of Hammurapi was swept
away, and the horse-breeders of the highlands triumphed
(twentieth century B.C.). Their rule was rude and almost
barbaric, and their triumph marked the end of old Babylonian
progress in civilization. Until its revival under the Chaldeans
(Section 20) Babylonia relapsed into stagnation so complete
that it was rarely interrupted.

198. Sum- As we look back over this first chapter of early human
retSspect progress along the Two Rivers, we see that it lasted about a

thousand years, beginning a generation or two before 3000 B.C.
The Sumerian mountaineers laid the foundations of civilization
in Shinar and began a thousand-year struggle with the Semites
of the desert. In spite of the mingling and union of the two

1 These mountaineers (called by the Babylonians Kassites) who probably
brought the horse into Babylonia did not domesticate him themselves. They
received him in trade from the North or from Asia Minor, from tribes of the
Indo-Europeans (§ 247), who had long before tamed or domesticated the animal.
The chariot courses which show his presence in prehistoric western Europe
(§ 39) were probably a little later than this. We recall the appearance of the
horse in Egypt about 1700 B.C. (§ 107), some four hundred years later than in
Babylonia.

Western Asia : Babylonia 1 39

races, the Semites triumphed twice under two great leaders,
Sargon (2 7 5 o b. c.) and Hammurapi (2 1 00 b. c). The Sumerians
then disappeared, and the language of Babylonia became Sem-
itic. The reign of Hammurapi, in spite of some weakening in
art, marks the highest point and the end of the thousand-
year development — the conclusion of the first great chapter
of history along the Two Rivers. The scene of the second
chapter will carry us up the river valley, just as it did in our
study of the Nile.

QUESTIONS

Section 13. Describe the Fertile Crescent. How can we sum-
marize its history .? Discuss its relation to the desert. Who were the
inhabitants of the desert .? Describe their life. Into what lands did
they shift at the west end of the Fertile Crescent.? at the east end?
What rivers cross the east half of the Crescent ? Describe the plain
they have made.

Section 14. Who were the early dwellers in the Plain of Shinar.?
Describe their life. Describe their writing materials and their writ-
ing. Summarize their civilization. Describe their buildings and
towns. What are such towns like to-day? What do we find in them?
Were the Sumerians all united in one nation ? What progress had
they made in war ?

Section 15. What outsiders defeated the Sumerians ? Who was
the first great Semitic king ? What did the Akkadians learn from the
Sumerians? What did the Akkadians accomplish in art? Describe
the mingling of Akkadians and Sumerians.

Section 16. What nation resulted from the mingling of Sume-
rians and Akkadians ? How long did it last ? Describe its literature.
What became of the Sumerian language ?

Section i 7. Who were the Amorites, and what city in the Plain
of Shinar did they seize? Who was their greatest king? Describe
his administration as seen in his letters. Tell about his achievements
in adjusting the laws of Babylonia. Discuss Babylonian commerce.
What did it carry to the peoples along the west of the Fertile Cres-
cent? Describe Babylonian divination, education, architecture. What
happened at Hammurapi's death? How long had the first chapter
of civilization on the Two Rivers lasted ?

CHAPTER V

199. The

situation of
Assur, the
earliest
capital of
Assyria

THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS

Section 18. Early Assyria and her Rivals

The second chapter of history along the Two Rivers carries us
up-river from Babylonia to the northeast corner of the desert-
bay. Here, overlooking the Tigris on the east and the desert on
the west and south, was an easily defended elevation (Fig. 96),
possessing a natural strength unknown to the towns in the flat
Plain of Shinar. The place was known as Assur (see map,
p. 100), and it later gave its name to the land of Assyria.

Note. The headpiece shows an Assyrian king attacking a fortified city
(ninth century B.C.). A century before the Empire the Assyrians had already
developed powerful appliances for destroying a city wall. The city at the right
is protected by walls of sun-dried brick like those of Samal (Fig. 97). The de-
fending archers on the wall are trying to drive away a huge Assyrian battering-
ram, mounted on six wheels, which has been rolled up to the wall from the left
It is an ancient " tank " with its front protected by metal armor plate. It carries
a tower as high as the city wall, and Assyrian sharpshooters (archers) in the top
of the tower are picking off the defenders of the wall. Within the tank unseen
men work the heavy beam of the ram. It is capped with metal and is shown
smashing a hole in the city wall, from which the bricks fall out. An observation
tower with a metal-covered dome, and holes for peeping out, shields the officer in
command as he directs the operation of the machine. In the rear (at the left)
is the Assyrian king shooting arrows into the hostile city. He uses a powerful
bow, invented in Egypt, which will shoot an arrow with great force from 1000 to
1400 feet, and hence he can stand at a safe distance. This scene, carved on a
slab of alabaster, is among the earliest Assyrian palace reliefs which have survived
(§ 209), and hence the artist's childish representation of men as tall as city walls.

140

The Assyrians and Chaldeans

141

The region about Assur was a highland, enjoying a climate
much more invigorating than the hot Babylonian plain. It had
many fertile valleys winding up into the eastern and northern
mountains, where rival cities were already in existence. Here an
occasional promontory of rock furnished quarries of limestone,
alabaster, and likewise
harder stone. Herein
Assyria differed greatly
from Babylonia, which
was without building-
stone, and had there-
fore developed only
architecture in brick.
These eastern valleys
were green with rolling
pastures and billowing
fields of barley and
wheat. Herds of oxen
and flocks of sheep and
goats dotted the hill-
side pastures. Donkeys
served as the chief draft
animals, and the horse
was unknown in the
beginning, just as it
was originally unknown
in Babylonia (§ 146).
Here flourished an
agricultural population, little given to other industries or to
trade. In this last particular Assyria was again in sharp
contrast with Babylonia.

By 3000 B.C. a Semitic tribe of nomads from the desert-bay
had settled at Assur, as their kindred of Akkad were doing at
the same time in the Plain of Shinar. As Semites they spoke
a Semitic dialect like that of the Semites of Babylonia, with

200. Climate,
soil, and
products of ^
Assyria

Fig. 96. The Tigris and the Prom-
ontory OF AsSUR AFTER A SNOW-
STORM

The river is at the left, and the fertile plain
beyond it soon breaks into hills, leading
up to the eastern mountains. The ruins of
the ancient city occupy the promontory on
the right (§ 199). The buildings in the
foreground are those of the archaeological
expedition which excavated the ruins *

201. Found-
ing of Assur
(3000 B.C.)
under
Sumerian
influence

Fig. 97. The Aramean City of Samal, One of the Western
Rivals of Assyria. (After von Luschan)*

142

The Assyrians and Chaldeans

143

differences no greater than we find between the dialects of
different parts of Germany, The men of Assur at first formed
a tiny city-kingdom like those of their Sumerian neighbors
in the South (§ 162). It is evident that they were in close
contact with the Sumerian towns, whose sculpture and writing
(Fig. 79) they adopted. They likewise received the Sumerian
calendar (§ 150) and most of the conveniences of Sumerian
civilization. There may even have been some Sumerians
among the early population of the town.

While the early civilization of Assur thus came from the
south, the little city-kingdom was equally exposed to influences
from the north and west. There in Asia Minor were the hostile
Hittite communities, some of which were venturing eastward to
the Two Rivers. More than once Assur was ruled by Hittite
lords, only to fall back again under the control of Sargon,
Hammurapi, or some other ruler of Babylonia. Thus obliged
for nearly fifteen hundred years after Sargon's reign to defend
their uncertain frontiers against their neighbors on both north
and south, the Assyrians were toughened by the strain of un-
ceasing war. Meantime, too, they introduced the horse (§ 197)
and added chariots to their army. Then the Assyrian kings

202. Assur
the vassal of
Babylonia
and the
Hittites
alternately ;
earliest ex-
pansion of
Assur north
and south

* Plan (above). The city was nearly half a mile across. It was de-
fended by a double wall of sun-dried brick on a heavy stone founda-
tion (ABC). The wall was strengthened with towers every 50 feet,
entirely round the city, making one hundred towers in all. The castle
of the kings of Samal occupied a hill in the middle (G), and the houses
of the townsmen filled the space between the city walls and the castle
(Z>, £, F). These houses built of sun-dried brick have disappeared, but
the castle can be restored. Restoration of the Castle {H, I, J, K, L,
below). This is the castle, or citadel, marked G in the city plan (above).
The walls of sun-dried brick rest on heavy stone foundations widen-
ing at the base. Samal in north Syria, midway between the Medi-
terranean and the Euphrates (map, p. loo), received influences both
from the Hittites in Asia Minor (§ 353) and from Egypt. The columned
porches (A' and L) in front of the palaces were built on a Hittite plan
with columns suggested by Egyptian architecture. Hittite art in relief
(Fig. 148) adorned this porch. The Assyrians adopted these Western
innovations (Fig. 105).

144 Ancient Times

began pushing westward, arid by 1300 B.C. they crossed the
Euphrates and swept back the Hittites from the great river.
At the same time they began to descend the Tigris with such
power that they even captured and ruled for a time their old
conqueror, Babylon, still under the rule of the half-barbaric
eastern Kassites, who had brought in the horse (§ 197).

Fig. 98. General View of Modern Damascus

Damascus is still the largest city of Syria, having probably three hun-
dred thousand inhabitants. When it became the most powerful Ara-
mean city-kingdom (§ 203) it must have been surrounded by a wall like
that of Samal (Fig. 97), with a splendid royal castle. The ruins of all
these ancient Aramean buildings must now lie under those of the
modern city, and hence ancient Damascus will never be excavated

203. The Assur was still an inland power, much like modem Russia,

of AssyriaT^^ and could not hope to rule Western Asia without access to the

Phoenicians, Mediterranean. Alone the Mediterranean coast new rivals

Hebrews, and °

Arameans arose to dispute her progress in the West. Here the harbor

towns of former Semitic nomads (§ 141) had become a fringe
of wealthy Phoenician city-kingdoms carrying on a flourishing
commerce by sea (§ 396). These Phoenician cities proved ob-
stinate enemies of the Assyrian kings. Meantime a new wave
of Semitic nomads had rolled in from the desert-bay (§135)-
By 1400 B.C. they were endeavoring to occupy its western

The Assyrians and Chaldeans

145

shores, that is, Palestine and Syria, just as the Assyrians had
done at Assur. These Western nomads were the Hebrews in
Palestine, and north of them the Arameans,^ or Syrians, occu-
pying Syria. They soon held the entire west end of the Fertile
Crescent and cut off Assyria from the sea. After 1200 b.c. the
Arameans established a group of flourishing kingdoms in the
West. Here, under the influence of Hittite civilization on one
side and Egyptian on the
other, these Aramean
kingdoms of Syria built
royal cities (Fig. 97),
and luxurious palaces
for their kings (Fig. 97,
ff-L), filled with sumptu-
ous furniture (Fig. 100).
Among these Aramean
kingdoms of Syria the
most powerful was
Damascus (Fig. 98).

The energetic Ara-
mean merchants ex-
tended their business far
beyond their own king-
doms. They pushed
their caravans all along

the shores of the desert-bay, even as far north as the sources
of the Tigris, and they finally held the commerce of Western
Asia. Their bronze weights found in the ruins of Nineveh
(Fig. 99) show us how common were the Aramean merchants
in the Assyrian market places. Like their kinsmen the Jews in
modem civilized states, although they were not organized as a
single nation, they were the great commercial leaders of the age.

Fig. 99.

Aramean Wp:ight
IN Assyria

FOUND

The weight is of bronze, cast in the shape
of a lion and equipped with a handle. The
inscription on the edge of the base is in
Aramaic. Fifteen of these Aramean lion
weights were found at one place, showing
the common presence of Aramean mer-
chants in the Assyrian markets (§ 204)

204.

Wide
spread
Aramean
commerce

1 The Arameans are often called Syrians, and the region north of Palestine
(see map, p. loo) is commonly called Syria. These two names, Syria and Syrians,
are not to be confused with Assyria and Assyrians.

146

Ancient Times

205. The

Aramean
merchants
spread the
first alphabet
in Asia

The Arameans were a highly civilized race. By 1000 b.c.
they were using alphabetic writing, which they had borrowed
from the Phoenicians (Section 40). It was the earliest system of

writing known which em-
ployed exclusively alpha-
betic signs (Fig. 160).
Along with the alphabet
the Arameans also re-
ceived the Egyptian pen
and ink, conveniences in-
dispensable in the use of
the new alphabet (Fig.
1 00). As the Babylonian
caravans had in earlier
times carried cuneiform
tablets throughout West-
ern Asia (§ 187), so the
Aramean caravans, with
their bills and receipts,
began to carry through
the same region the
alphabet which was to
displace cuneiform signs.
Thus spread throughout
Western Asia the Phoe-
nician Aramean alpha-
bet. Jt passed down the
Euphrates, to Persia and
the inner Asiatic lands,
and even to the fron-
tiers of India, to furnish
at length even the East Indian peoples with their alphabet.

The Aramean merchants of course carried their language
(called Aramaic) with them, and Aramaic gradually became very
common all around the desert-bay. Indeed, in the old Assyrian

Fig. 100. An Aramean King of
Samal and his Secretary hold-
ing an Egyptian Writing Outfit
(Eighth Century b.c.)

The king sits at the left on a richly carved
throne of ebony, ivory, and gold, with a
footstool of the same design. Before him
stands his secretary, carrying under his left
arm something which looks much like a
book ; but bound books were still unknown
at this time. In his left hand he holds an
Egyptian writing case containing pen and
ink (cf. Fig. loi). The flat relief in which
the entire scene is carved had its origin
on the Nile. From Syria, in such cities as
Samal, it passed to Assyria, where it was
immensely improved (Fig. 107). (From
a photograph by von Luschan)

Ri?,

The Assyrians and Chaldeans 147

JK^«^««

'(iiiiif-fintniiiiHi

Fig. 1 01. An Assyrian and an Aramean Scribe recording

THE Plunder taken from a Captured Asiatic City (Eighth

Century b.c.)

The captive women and children ride by in oxcarts on their way to
slavery in Assyria, and a shepherd drives off the captured flocks. At the
left an Assyrian officer reads from a tablet his notes of the spoil taken
in the city. Two scribes write as he reads. The first (in front) holds in
his left hand a thick clay tablet^ fronj which he has just lifted the stylus
grasped in his right hand, as he pauses in his writing. The other scribe
holds spread out on his left hand a ivll of papyrus, on which he is
busily writing with a pen held in his right hand. He is an Aramean (§205), .
writing Aramaic with pen and ink. We see here, then, the two different
methods of writing practiced at this time in Western Asia — the outgoing
Asiatic clay tablet and the incoming Egyptian paper, pen, and ink

communities the people who spoke Aramaic finally Outnumbered 206. Assyrian
the citizens of Assyrian speech. When an Aramean received a

cuneiform tablet recording business matters in the Assyrian
language, he sometimes took his pen and marked it with memo-
randa in Aramaic. Assyrian tablets bearing such notes in
Aramaic have been found in the ruins of Assyrian buildings.

side by side in
business and
government

148 Ancient Times

Indeed public business was finally carried on in both languages,
Assyrian and Aramaic. Aramean clerks were appointed to gov-
ernment offices, and it was a very common thing for an Ara-
mean official of the Assyrian Empire to keep his records on
papyrus, writing with pen and ink on a roll, while his Assyrian
companion in office wrote with a stylus on a clay tablet (Fig. loi).

207. Com- Aramaic finally became the language of the entire Fertile
oAheTra-^ Crescent. It even displaced its very similar sister tongue, the
maic Ian- Hebrew of Palestine, and thus this merchant tongue of the

guage along ' °

the whole Arameans, many centuries later, became the language spoken
Crescent by Jesus and the other Hebrews of his time in Palestine
(Fig. 131). In the end this widespread commercial civilization
of the Arameans left more lasting influences behind than even
the powerful military state of the Assyrians, as we shall see.
Unfortunately the Aramean city mounds of Syria, with one ex-
ception (Fig. 97), still remain unexcavated ; hence we have
recovered but few monuments to tell us of their career.

208. Ara- As wealthy commercial rulers, the Aramean kings of Damas-
cuTandher^ cus were long able to make their city so strong as to block
^i^"^^*l^u^^^*^^ further Assyrian advance toward the Mediterranean. One of

along the -^

west end of the best illustrations of the effect of their power is the fact
Crescent halt that Damascus long sheltered the feeble little Hebrew king-
expansion doms from Assyrian attack (see map, p. 100). The Assyrian
of Assyria army marched westward and looked out upon the Mediterranean
by HOG B.C., but for more than three centuries after this the
kings of Assur were unable to conquer and hold this western
region against the strong group of Aramean, Phoenician, and
Hebrew kingdoms. They held the Assyrian armies at bay
until the eighth century B.C.

209. Growth As Assyrian power thus seemed to pause at the threshold of
civiiiSiorT ^^^ Empire, let us look back for a moment over the long two
before the thousand years of development and see what progress Assur
under influ- had made in civilization since it had received from the Sume-
Babyloniaand rians such things as cuneiform writing (§ 201), etc. Assur was
the Hittites ^^^^ enough to the North and West to feel influences from there

The Assyrians and Chaldeans

149

also, especially from the Hittites (§ 356), who contributed much
both in art and in religion. All these inherited things Assur

had also cultivated and developed.
She had added some two hundred
cuneiform signs to the list received
from Babylonia. Under influences
from the Hittite art of north Syria
(Fig. 100) the sculptors of Assur
were learning to tell the story of the
king's valiant exploits in elaborate
stone pictures cut in flat relief on
great slabs of alabaster (Figs. loi
and 1 05). These were set up in long
rows along the palace walls. This
architectural sculpture was an art
not practiced in Babylonia. As in
sculpture, so also in architecture,
the possession of stone enabled the
Assyrians to do what had been
impossible in stoneless Babylonia.
The Assyrian builder could erect
heavy foundations of stone under
his buildings, as the Hittite and
Syrian had long been doing. Above
the foundation the Assyrian build-
ing itself, however, continued to
be made of sun-dried brick, as in
Babylonia.

Above is the winged sun-disk

of Egypt, the borrowed symbol of the Assyrian Sun-god Assur (§ 210),
whom we see shooting his deadly arrows. Below is the beautiful sym-
bol of the tree of life, which originated in old Babylonia (see § 155).
The early Babylonian worshiper's palm branch in a jar of water (§ 155)
had been developed by artists into a decorative palm tree seen here
rising like a post in the middle, with its spreading crown of leaves
at the top and festooned with tufts of palm leaves like those on the
top of the tree. In this form it was later much used by the Greeks

Fig. 102. Symbol OF THE
God Assur surmounting
AN Assyrian Represen-
tation OF THE Old Baby-
lonian Tree of Life

ISO

Ancient Times

210. Religion
of Assur

The sacred stories and symbols of the gods which had
grown up among the Babylonian communities (§§ 1 71-173)
were taken over by the men of Assur, who copied and studied

^^v^s^^j^^

Fig. 103. Stone Coffin of a King of Assyria a Century
before the empire

In this limestone sarcophagus (coffin) lay the body of an Assyrian king
buried here twenty-eight hundred years ago, in the ninth century B.C.
Above this sun-dried-brick vault in which he was buried rose the palace
of Assur. The German excavators found here five such vaults under
the floor of the palace. The dead Assyrian king was thus buried under
his dweUing like ordinary Assyrians or Babylonians (Fig. 81). These are
the first royal tombs ever found in Assyria. They had been broken open
and robbed, the bodies of the kings scattered, and the coffins mostly shat-
tered to pieces, over two thousand years ago, by the Parthians (§ 1023).
and they were found empty by the excavators

and revered them (Fig. 102). But the Assyrians clung to
their old tribal god Assur, whose name was the same as that
of their city and their tribe. He was a fierce god of war,
whom they identified with the sun. He led the Assyrian

The Assyrians and Chaldeans 151

kings on their victorious campaigns, and shot his deadly arrows

far and wide among the foe (Fig. 102). As his symbol, the

Assyrians borrowed the winged sun-disk from the Hittites of

Syria, who had received it from Egypt (cf. Figs. 34 and 102).

Their great goddess was Ishtar, the goddess of love, whom

we have already met in Babylonia. Religion among the warlike

Assyrians, as in Babylonia, had little effect upon the conduct

of the worshiper. One reason for this was the fact that the

Assyrians had much the same notions of the hereafter as the

Babylonians, with no belief in a judgment to come. Their

burials, as in Babylonia (Fig. 81), were placed under the floor

or court of the dead man's house.

Recent excavations at Assur uncovered a series of brick 211. Dis-

vaults under the pavement of the royal palace. In these tombTofthe

vaults were found fragments of massive stone coffins, two ^i"P

^ ' of Assur

of which, however, had not been broken up (Fig. 103). These
are the oldest royal burials known in Asia, and the first ever
found in Assyria; for in these coffins once lay the bodies of
the powerful kings of Assur, who lived and ruled and built
there, toward the end of the long two-thousand-year develop-
ment which led up to the Assyrian Empire.

Section 19. The Assyrian Empire (about 750 to

606 B.C.)

By the middle of the eighth century B.C., Assyria was 212. Con-
again pushing her plans of westward expansion. Damascus, wesSvard
combined with the other Western kingdoms, made a desperate ^^Pf"sion
resistance, only to be slowly crushed. When at last Damascus
fell (732 B.C.), the countries of the West were all subdued and
made subject kingdoms. Thus the once obscure little city of
Assur gained the lordship over Western Asia as head of an
empire, a great group of conquered and vassal nations
(§ 108). The story of that Empire forms the second great
chapter of history along the Two Rivers.

152 Ancient Times

213. Sar- In the midst of these great Western campaigns of Assyria,
Assyria°(722- while he was besieging the unhappy Hebrew city of Samaria
705 B.C.) (^ 306), one of the leading Assyrian generals usurped the

throne (722 B.C.), and as king he took the name of Sargon, the
first great Semite of Babylonia, who had reigned two thousand
years earlier (§ 166). The new Sargon raised Assyria to the
height of her grandeur and power as a military empire. His
descendants were the great emperors of Assyria.^ On the
northeast of Nineveh he built a new royal residence on a
vaster scale and more magnificent than any Asia had ever
seen before. He called it Dur-Sharrukin (Sargonburg).
Its inclosure was a mile square, large enough to shelter
a community of eighty thousand people, and the palace build-
ing itself (Fig. 104) covered twenty-five acres. Babylonia in
her greatest days had never possessed a seat of power like
this. In no uncertain terms it proclaimed Assyria mistress of
Western Asia.

214. Sennach- The grandeur of Sargon II was even surpassed by his son
681 B.C.) Sennacherib, one of the great statesmen of the early Orient.

^ Far up in Asia Minor the name of Sennacherib was known
and feared, as he plundered Tarsus and the easternmost Ionian
Greek strongholds (§ 438) just after 700 B.C. Thence his
campaigns swept southward along the Mediterranean to the
very borders of Egypt. To be sure, much of Sennacherib's
army was destroyed by a pest which smote them from the
Delta marshes (§ 309), and hence Sennacherib never crossed
the Egyptian frontier. But against Babylon, his other ancient
rival, he adopted the severest measures. Exasperated by one
revolt after another, Sennacherib completely destroyed the
venerable city of Hammurapi and even turned the waters
of a canal over the desolate ruins.

1 The leading kings of the dynasty of Sargon II are as follows :

Sargon II 722-705 b.c.

Sennacherib 705-681 B.C.

Esarhaddon 681-668 b.c.

Assurbanipal (called Sardanapalus by the Greeks) . . 668-626 b. c.

The Assyrians and Chaldeans

153

Thus Babylon was annihilated ; but the ancient power on 215. Egypt
the Nile remained a continual disturber of Assyrian control. by^Assyria
A crushing burden of Assyrian tribute had been laid on all

^«" -; 'i^'Mrt'^^^t^

Fig. 104. Restoration of the Palace and a Portion of the

City of Sargonburg, the Royal Residence of Sargon II

(722-705 B.C.). (After Place)

The palace stands pardy inside and partly outside of the city wall on
a vast elevated platform of brick masonry containing about 25 acres.
Inclined roadways and stairways rise from the inside of the city wall.
The king could thus drive up in his chariot from the streets of the city
below to the palace pavement above. The rooms and halls are clustered
about a number of courts open to the sky.- The main entrance (with
stairs before it leading down to the city) is adorned with massive towers
and arched doorways (§ 222) built of richly colored glazed brick (Plate II,
p. 164) and embellished with huge human-headed bulls carved of alabaster.
The temple tower behind the great court, inherited from Babylonia, was
the ancestor of the Christian Church spire (Fig. 272). The streets and
houses of the city filled the space below the palace within the city walls,
which could accommodate some eighty thousand people (§213)

subject states, and hence Egypt was constantly able to stir
revolt among the oppressed Western peoples, who longed to
be freed from the payment of this tribute. Assyria perceived

Sketch Map of Nineveh

Notice the changes in the course of the Tigris, which formerly flowed
along the west wall of the city. This change has been caused by the
Khoser River, which has carried down soil and formed a plain between
the wall of the city and the Tigris. In Fig. 203 we have a view from a
housetop in Mosul, across the river from Nineveh, showing us this plain,
with the mound of Kuyunjik just behind it. This mound covers the
palaces of Sennacherib and Assurbanipal. A destructive overflow of
the Khoser River, which flooded the city and broke down a section of
the eastern wall, was one of the chief causes of the fall of Nineveh

154

The Assyrians aitd Chaldea7is 155

that Egypt's interference must be stopped. Sennacherib's son,
therefore, appeared before the gates of the eastern Delta forts
by 674 B.C. Repulsed at first, he returned to the attack, and
although he died before entering the Delta, Egypt at last fell
a prey to the Assyrian armies, and Sennacherib's grandson was
for a time lord of the lower Nile.

By 700 B.C. the Assyrian Empire included all of the Fer- 216. Extent
tile Crescent. It thus extended entirely around the great Assyrian
desert-bay ; but it furthermore included much of the northern Empire
mountain country far behind. The conquest of Egypt gave it
also the lower Nile valley in the west, though this last was too
distant and too detached to be kept long. Built up by irre-
sistible and far-reaching military campaigns which went on for
two generations after Sargon II, the Assyrian conquests finally
formed the most extensive empire the world had yet seen.

Sennacherib was not satisfied merely to enlarge the old royal 217. Nineveh
residences of his fathers at Assur or at Sargonburg. He de- Assyrian
voted himself to the city of Nineveh, north of Assur, and it ^^P*^^^
now became the far-famed capital of Assyria. Along the Tigris
the vast palaces (Fig. 104) and imposing temple towers of the
Assyrian emperors arose, reign after reign. The lofty and
massive walls of Nineveh which Sennacherib built stretched
two miles and a half along the banks of the Tigris. Here in
his gorgeous palace he ruled the western Asiatic world with an
iron hand, and collected tribute from all the subject peoples.

The whole administration centered in the king's business 218. Means
office. He maintained a system of royal messengers, and in each catiorTanT*'
of the more important places on the main roads he appointed Ji^^^Jfth^"
an official to attend to the transmission of all royal business. Assyrian
In this manner all clay-tablet letters or produce and merchan-
dise belonging to the royal house were sure of being forwarded.
This organization formed the beginnings of a postal system^
which continued formany centuries in the Orient (§ 273).

I There are indications that it was already in existence in Asia, under Egyp-
tian rule, as far back as 2000 B.C.

Ancient Times

Fig. 105. Assyrian Soldiers pursuing the Fleeing Enemy
ACROSS A Stream

The stream occupies the right half of the scene. As drawn by the
Assyrian artist, it may be recognized by the fish and the curling waves ;
also by the bows and quivers full of arrows floating downstream, along
with the bodies of two dead horses, one on his back with feet up. Two
dead men, with arrows sticking in their bodies, are drifting in mid-
stream. Three of the living leap from the bank as their pursuers stab
them with spears or shoot them with drawn bow. The Assyrian spear-
men carry tall shields, but the archer needs both hands for his bow and
carries no shield. The dead are strewn along the shore, occupying the
left half of the scene. At the top the vultures are plucking out their
eyes ; in the middle an Assyrian is cutting off a head ; beside him an-
other plants his foot on a dead man's head and steals his weapons.
The vegetation along the river is shown among the bodies

In this way the emperor received the letters and reports of
some sixty governors over districts and provinces, besides
many subject kings who were sometimes allowed to continue
their rule under Assyrian control. We even have several clay-
tablet letters dispatched by Sennacherib himself while he was

C O

g -^ ^ ^_^ fd
!Z5 o ?- to

o -^

Fig. 107. Assyrian Soldiers of the Empire. (From the
Palace Reliefs of Assurbanipal)

It was the valor of these stalwart archers and spearmen which made
Assyria mistress of the East for about a century and a half (§§ 220-221)

The Assyrians and Chaldeans 1 5 7

crown prince, and addressed to his royal father, Sargon. To
maintain the army was the chief work of the State. The State
was a vast military machine, more terrible than any mankind
had ever yet seen (Fig. 105). We shall understand this situa-
tion if we imagine that our war department were the central
office in Washington, and that our government should devote
itself chiefly to supporting it.

An important new fact aided in bringing about this result. 219. The
Through contact with the Hittite west (§ 360) iron had been ESpiJe"and
introduced among the Assyrians. The Assyrian forces were *^^ ^''^'^ ^S^
therefore the Jirst large arfnies equipped with weapons of i?'o?t.
A single arsenal room of Sargon's palace was found to contain
two hundred tons of iron implements. To a certain extent the
rise and power of the Assyrian Empire were among the results
of the incoming of iron.

The bulk of the Assyrian army was composed of archers, sup- 220. The
ported by heavy-armed spearmen and shield bearers (Fig. 107). Assyrians ^
Besides these, the famous horsemen and chariotry of Nineveh
(Fig. 106, B) became the scourge of the East. For the first
time too the Assyrians employed the battering-ram (head-
piece, p. 140) and formidable siege machinery. The sun-dried-
brick walls of the Asiatic cities could thus be battered down
or pierced, and no fortified place could long repulse the assaults
of the fierce Assyrian infantry.

Besides their iron weapons and their war machines the 221. Ter-
Assyrian soldiers displayed a certain inborn ferocity which Assyrian ^
held all Western Asia in abject terror before the thundering ^^'"y
squadrons of the Ninevites.^ Wherever the terrible Assyrian
armies swept through the land, they left a trail of ruin and
desolation behind. Around smoking heaps which had once
been towns, stretched lines of tall stakes, on which were stuck
the bodies of rebellious rulers flayed alive ; while all around rose
mounds and piles of the slaughtered, heaped up to celebrate
the great king's triumph and serve as a warning to all revolters.

1 See Nahum iii, 2-3.

IS8

Ancient Times

222. Civili-
zation of the
Assyrian
Empire :
architecture

223. Civili-
zation of the
Assyrian
Empire :
sculpture

Through clouds of dust rising along all the main roads of the
Empire the men of the subject kingdoms beheld great herds
of cattle, horses, and asses, flocks of goats and sheep, and long
lines of camels loaded with gold and silver, the wealth of the
conquered, converging upon the palace at Nineveh. Before
them marched the chief men of the plundered kingdoms, with
the severed heads of their former princes tied about their necks.

While this plundered wealth was necessary for the support
of the army, it also served higher purposes. As we have seen
(Fig. 104), the Assyrian palaces were now imposing buildings,
suggesting in architecture the far-reaching power of their builder.
In the hands of the Assyrian architects the arch, inherited from
Babylonia, for the first time became an imposing monumental
feature of architecture. The impressive triple arches of the
Assyrian palace entrance, faced with glazed brick in gorgeous
colors (Plate II), were the ancestor of the Roman triumphal
arches (Fig. 248). On either side were vast human-headed
bulls wrought in alabaster, and above the whole towered lofty
castellated walls of baked brick, visible far across the royal
city (Fig. 104).

Within the palace, as a dado running along the lower portion
of the walls, were hundreds of feet of relief pictures cut in
alabaster (see Figs. loi, 105,106,^, and 107). They show great
improvement over the older work (headpiece, p. 140) a century
before the Empire. They display especially the great deeds of
the emperor in- campaign and hunting field (Figs. 105 and
106, B). The human figures are monotonously alike, hard, cold,
and unfeeling. Nowhere is there a human form which shows
any trace of feeling, either joy or sorrow, pleasure or pain. The
Assyrian sculptor's wild beasts, however, are sometimes mag-
nificent in the abandon of animal ferocity which they display
(Fig. 106, B), The tiger was in the blood of the Assyrian, and
it came out in the work of his chisel. On the other hand, the
pathetic expression of suffering exhibited by some of these won-
derful animal forms (Fig. 106,^) was a triumph of art, which the

The Assyrians and Chaldeans

159

Assyrian sculptor owed to a study of the superb lions and bulls
(Fig. 106, A) on the exquisite old Babylonian seals of the age of
Sargon I, two thousand years earlier. The art of portraiture in
statue form never got beyond very crude and unskillful efforts.

The emperors were
obliged to depend much
on foreign skill, both
in art and industries.
The art of glazing col-
ored brick had been
borrowed from Egypt
(§83). All the patterns
of Assyrian decorative
art likewise came from
Egypt, and their furni-
ture made by Phoeni-
cian workmen, of ebony
and ivory, often be-
trays Egyptian origin
(Fig. 108). Phoenician
craftsmen at Nineveh
wrought splendidly en-
graved bronze platters
(Fig. 158). Sennache-
rib tells us that he had
in his palace " a portal
made after the model
of a Hittite palace,"
and his predecessors
had long before built similar portals like those they had seen
in the Hittite west (Fig. 97). It is in this ability to use foreign
resources that we must recognize one of the greatest traits of
the Assyrian emperors.

In the fine gardens which Sennacherib laid out along the
river above and below Nineveh he planted strange trees and

Fig. 108. Ivory Fragment of an

Egyptian Winged Sphinx found in

AN Assyrian Palace

Such fragments of carved ivory were used
in inlaying furniture like that in Fig. 100.
They were the work of Phoenician crafts-
men in the service of the Assyrian kings
(§ 224). These workmen constantly em-
ployed Egyptian designs and symbols com-
bined with those of Assyria. The winged
animal, first found in Egyptian art, passed
to the Phoenicians and Hittites in Syria
and thence to Assyria, where it finally de-
veloped into the huge winged bull-figure
adorning the front of the king's palace

224. Assyrian
borrowing
from abroad

i6o

Ancient Times

225. Intro-
duction of for-
eign plants,
including
earliest
cotton

226. Assur-

banipal's

library

227. Internal
decay; eco-
nomic and
agricultural
decline

plants from all quarters of his great empire. Among them
were cotton trees, of which he says, " The trees that bore wool
they clipped and they carded it for garments." These cotton
trees came from India. We thus see appearing for the first
time in the ancient world the cotton which now furnishes so
large a part of our own national wealth.^

Higher interests were also cultivated among the Assyrians,
and literature flourished. Assurbanipal, grandson of Sennach-
erib, and the last great Assyrian emperor, boasts that his
father instructed him not only in riding and shooting with bow
and arrow but also in writing on clay tablets and in all the
wisdom of his time. A great collection of twenty-two thou-
sand clay tablets was discovered in Assurbanipal's fallen library
rooms at Nineveh, where they had been lying on the floor for
twenty-five hundred years. They are now in the British
Museum. In this library the religious, scientific, and literary
works of past ages had been systematically collected by the
emperor's orders (Fig. 109). They formed the earliest library
known in Asia. The Assyrians were far more advanced in
these matters than the Babylonians, and Assyrian civilization
was far from being a mere echo of Babylonian culture.

Like many another later ruler, however, the Assyrian em-
perors made a profound mistake in policy. For their wars of
conquest led to the destruction of the industrial and wealth-
producing population, first within their own territory and then
throughout the subject kingdoms. In spite of interest in intro-
ducing a new textile like cotton, the Assyrian rulers did not
or could not build up industries or commerce like those of
Babylonia. The people were chiefly agricultural, and in the
old days it had sufficed to call them from their farming for
short periods to defend the frontiers. With the expansion of
the Empire, however, such temporary bodies of troops were
insufficient, and the peasants were permanently taken from the

1 This cotton tree was doubtless related to the lower-growing cotton plant of
our Southern states.

The Assyrians and Chaldeans

i6i

Fig. 109. Portion of Old Babylonian Story of the Flood

FROM ASSURBANIPAL'S LIBRARY AT NiNEVEH

This large flat tablet was part of ati: Assyrian cuneiform book consist-
ing of a series of such tablets. This flood story (§ 155) tells how the
hero, Ut-napishtim, built a great ship and thus survived a terrible flood,
in which all his countrymen perished. Each of these clay-tablet books,
collected in fresh copies by Assurbanipal for his library (§ 226), bore
his " bookmark " just like a book in a modern library. To prevent any-
one else from taking the book, or writing his name on it, the Assyrian
king's bookmark contained the following warning : " Whosoever shall
carry off this tablet, or shall inscribe his name upon it side by side with
mine own, may Assur and Belit overthrow him in wrath and anger, and
may they destroy his name and posterity in the land "

fields to fill the ranks of an ever-growing standing army. It is
not improbable that the ruling class were buying up the small
farms to form great estates. We learn of disused canals and

l62

Ancient Times

228. Foreign

levies in

the army ;

Aramean

merchants

controlling

trade

229. Assaults
from without :
the Chal-
deans from
the desert

230. Assaults
from without:
Indo-
European
peoples
from the
mountains

idle fields as we read of Sargon's efforts to restore the old
farming communities. Nevertheless, so vast an expansion of the
Empire exceeded the power of the standing army to defend it.

As reports of new revolts came in, the harassed ruler at
Nineveh forced the subjects of his foreign vassal kingdoms
to enter the army. With an army made. up to a dangerous
extent of such foreigners, with no industries, with fields lying
idle, with, the commerce of the country in the hands of the
Aramean traders (§ 204), and Aramean speech more com-
mon in the cities of the Empire, even in Nineveh, than that of
the Assyrians themselves — under these conditions the Assyrian
nation fast lost its inner strength.

In addition to such weakness within, there were the most
threatening dangers from without. These came, as of old,
from both sides of the Fertile Crescent. Drifting in from the
desert, the Aramean hordes were constantly occupying the
territory of the Empire. Sennacherib in one campaign took
over two hundred thousand captives out of Babylonia, mostly
Arameans. At the same time another desert tribe called the
" Kaldi," whom we know as the Chaldeans, had been for cen-
turies creeping slowly around the head of the Persian Gulf and
settling along its shores at the foot of the eastern mountains.
They were Semitic nomads, repeating what the Akkadians had
done in Akkad (§ 166), the Amorites in Babylon (§ 175), and
the Assyrians at Assur (§ 201).

On the other hand, in the northern mountains the advancing
hordes of Indo-European peoples were in full view (see Sec-
tion 21), led by the tribes of the Medes and Persians (§ 251).
These movements shook the Assyrian State to its foundations.
The Chaldeans mastered Babylonia, and then, in combination
with the Median hosts from the northeastern mountains, they
assailed the walls of Nineveh.

Weakened by a generation of decline within, and struggling
vainly against this combined assault from without, the mighty
city of the Assyrian emperors fell (606 B.C.). In the voice

The Assyrians and Chaldeans

163

of the Hebrew prophet Nahum (ii, 8, 13, and iii entire), we 231. Fall of
hear an echo of the exulting shout which resounded from the destmction
Caspian to the Nile as the nations discovered that the terrible ^^^^^^l^
scourge of the East had at last been laid low. Its fall was
forever, and when two centuries later Xenophon and his ten
thousand Greeks marched past the place (§ 630), the Assyrian
nation was but a vague tradition, and Nineveh, its great city,
was a vast heap of rubbish as it is to-day (Fig. 203). Even
Assyrian speech passed away, and Aramaic became the tongue
of the region which had once been Assyria, just as it was also
to become the language of Babylonia (§ 265). The second
great chapter of history on the Two Rivers was ended, having
lasted but a scant century' and a half (about 750 to 606 B.C.).

The fall of Assyria, while dramatically sudden and tragically 232. Progress
complete, nevertheless left the nations of Western Asia in a the^ Assyrian
very different situation from that in which the first Assyrian Empire
emperors had found them. The rule of a single sovereign had
been enforced upon the whole great group of nations around
the eastern end of the Mediterranean, and the methods of
organizing such an empire had been much improved. It was
really in continuance of this organization that the great Persian
Empire was built up (§ 260), sixty years after the fall of Assyria.
The Assyrian Empire, especially in its great military organiza-
tion, marked a long step forward in that gradual growth of the
idea of all-including world power, which culminated at last in
the Roman Empire. In spite of its often ferocious harshness,
the Assyrian rule had furthered civilization. The building of the
magnificent palaces in and near Nineveh formed the first chapter .
in great architecture in Asia. At the same time Nineveh pos-
sessed the first libraries as yet known there. Finally, the Assyrian
dominion, as we shall see (§ 307), created the international
situation which enabled the Hebrews to gain the loftiest con-
ceptions of their own God, as they matched him against the
great war god of Assyria — conceptions which have profoundly
influenced the entire later history of mankind.

1 64

Ancient Times

Section 20. The Chaldean Empire
Semitic Empire

THE Last

233. Rise of

the Chaldean
Empire

234. Reign of
Nebuchad-
nezzar (604-
561 B.C.)

235. Magnifi-
cent build-
ings of
Chaldean
Babylon

The Kaldi, or Chaldeans, the new masters of Babylonia,
now founded an empire whose brief career formed the third
great chapter of history on the Two Rivers.^ They were the
last Semitic lords of Babylonia. The Chaldeans made their
capital at Babylon, rebuilt after its destruction by Sennacherib
(§ 214). They gave their name to the land, so that we now
know it as Chaldea (from '' Kaldi "). While they left the
Medes in possession of the northern mountains, the empire
of the Chaldeans included the entire P'ertile Crescent.

At Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest of the Chaldean
emperors, now (604 B.C.) began a reign of over forty years — a
reign of such power and magnificence, especially as reflected to
us in the Bible, that he has become one of the great figures of
oriental history. Exasperated by the obstinate revolts en-
couraged by Egypt in the West, Nebuchadnezzar punished
the Western nations, especially the little Hebrew kingdom of
Judah. He finally carried away many Hebrews as captives to
Babylonia and destroyed Jerusalem, their capital (586 B.C.).

In spite of long and serious wars, the great king found time
and wealth to devote to the enlargement and beautification of
Babylon. Copying much from Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar was
able to surpass his Assyrian predecessors in the splendor of the
great buildings which he now erected. In the large temple
quarter in the south of the city he rebuilt the temples of the
long-revered Babylonian divinities (Fig. 206). Leading from

1 The three great chapters of history on the Two Rivers are :

1. Early Babylonia (thirty-first century to twenty-first century B.C.; Sargon I
about 2750 B.C., Hammurapi about 2100 B.C.). See Sections 14-17.

2. The Assyrian Empire (about 750 to 606 B.C.). See Section 19.

3. The Chaldean Empire (about 606 to 539 B.C.). See Section 20.

With the exception of parts of the first, these three epochs were periods of
Semitic power. To these we might in later times add 2, fourth period of Semitic
supremacy, the triumph of Islam in the seventh century a.d., after the death of
Mohammed (§1154)-

The Assyrians and Chaldeans

165

these to the palace, he laid out a festival avenue which passed
through an imposing gateway called the " Ishtar Gate " (Fig.
no), for it was dedicated to this goddess. Behind it lay

SCALE OF FEET

3000 4000 6000

Map of Babylon in the Chaldean Age

the vast imperial palace and the offices of government, while
high over all towered the temple-mount which rose by the
Marduk temple as a veritable "Tower of Babel" (see § 152).
Masses of rich tropical verdure, rising in terrace upon terrace,

i66

Ancient Times

236. Extent
and modem
excavation of
Chaldean
Babylon

forming a lofty garden, crowned the roof of the imperial palace
and, overlooking the Ishtar Gate, enhanced the brightness of

its colors. Here in the cool
shade of palms and ferns,
inviting to luxurious ease,
the great king might enjoy
an idle hour with the ladies
of his court and look down
upon the splendors of his
city. These roof gardens
of Nebuchadnezzar's pal-
ace were the mysterious
Hanging Gardens of Baby-
lon, whose fame spread
far into the West until
they were numbered by
the Greeks among the
Seven Wonders of the
World. Babylon thus be-
came a monumental city
like those of Assyria and
Egypt (§ 113).

For the first time Baby-
lonia saw a very large city.
It was immensely extended
by Nebuchadnezzar, and
enormous fortified walls
were built to protect it, in-
cluding one (above the
city) that extended entirely
across from river to river.
It is this Babylon of Nebu-
chadnezzar whose marvels
over a century later so im-
pressed Herodotus (§ 567),

Fig. 1 1 o. The Ishtar Gate of the

Palace Quarter of Babylon in

THE Chaldean Empire (Sixth

Century b.c.)

This gate, recently excavated by the
Germans (cf. Fig. iii), is the most im-
portant building still standing in Baby-
lon. It is not a restoration like Fig. 206.
The towers rising on either side of the
gate are adorned with the figures of
animals in splendidly colored glazed
tile, as used also in the Assyrian pal-
aces (Plate II, p. 164). Behind this gate
rose the sumptuous palace of Nebu-
chadnezzar, crowned by the beautiful
roof gardens known as the Hanging
Gardens of Babylon (§ 235)

The Assyrians and Chaldeans

167

as is shown in the description of the city which he has left us.
This, too, is the Babylon which has become familiar to all
Christian peoples as the great city of the Hebrew captivity
(Section 31). Of all the glories which made it world renowned
in its time, little now remains. The excavations in the city

Fig. III. Beginning of the Excavation of Ancient Babylon
ON March 26, 1899

The mounds shown are the rubbish covering the palace of Nebuchad-
nezzar (§ 235). The palms in the background fringe the Euphrates.
The Arab workmen in the foreground have just uncovered part of
the pavement of Nebuchadnezzar's splendid Festival Street, or pro-
cessional avenue, which connected the palace and the Ishtar Gate
(Fig. no) with one of the great temples. Beneath all these works of
Chaldean Babylon (Section 20) should lie the remains of old Babylon
of Hammurapi's age (Section 17); but Sennacherib's destruction of the
city (§ 214) swept away the older Babylon. Since the first day's work
shown above, eighteen years of excavation at Babylon have uncovered
almost nothing older than the city of Nebuchadnezzar

(Fig. in), which continued from 1899 to 19 17, slowly revealed
one building after another, the scanty wreckage of the ages.
These excavations revealed the Festival Street and the Ishtar
Gate (Fig. no), but the Ishtar Gate is almost the only build-
ing in all Babylonia of which any impressive remains survive.
Elsewhere the broken fragments of dingy sun-baked-brick walls
suggest little of the brilliant life which once ebbed and flowed
through these streets and public places.

1 68 Ancient Times

237. Civiii- The Chaldeans seem to have absorbed the civilization of
Chaldean Babylonia in much the same way as other earlier Semitic
Babylon invaders of this ancient plain (§§ 167, 175). Commerce and

business flourished, the arts and industries were highly devel-
oped, religion and literature were cultivated and their records
were put into wedge-writing on clay tablets as of old.

238. Rise of Science made notable progress in one important branch —
and^astrology astronomy. The Babylonians continued the ancient practice

of trying to discover the future in the heavenly bodies (see
§ 192). This art, which we call "astrology," was now very
systematically pursued and was really becoming astronomy.
The equator was divided into 360 degrees, and for the first
time the Chaldean astrologers laid out the twelve groups of
stars which we call the " Twelve Signs of the Zodiac." Thus
for the first time the sky and its worlds were being mapped out.

239. Origin Thefive planets then known (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,

of names of 1 o \ • n 111 n-

the planets and batum) were especially regarded as the powers controllmg
the fortunes of men, and as such the five leading Babylonian
divinities were identified with these five heavenly bodies. The
names of these Babylonian divinities have descended to us as
the names of the planets. But on their way to us through
Europe, the ancient Babylonian divine names were translated
into Roman forms. So the planet of Ishtar, the goddess of
love, became Venus, while that of the great god Marduk
became Jupiter, and so on. The celestial observations made
by these Chaldean " astrologers," as we call them, slowly be-
came sufficiently accurate, so that the observers could already
foretell an eclipse. These observations when inherited by the
Greeks formed the basis of the science of astronomy, which
the Greeks carried so much further (§492). The practice of
astrology has survived to our own day; we still unconsciously
recall it in such phrases as " his lucky star " or an " ill-starred
undertaking."

We can discern in the new architecture of Babylon how this
Chaldean Age brought Babylonia up to the new and higher

The Assyrians and Chaldeans

169

241. Decline
of the old

oriental

level of civilization attained by Assyria. Nevertheless, the 240. The
Chaldeans themselves fancied that they were restoring the ?ev1vafof
civilization of the old Babylonia of Hammurapi. The scribes *^^ P^^^
loved to employ an ancient style of writing and out-of-date
forms of speech; the kings tunneled deep under the temple
foundations and searched for years that they might find the
old foundation records buried (like our corner-stone documents)
by kings of ancient days (§160).

This dependence upon the past meant decline. After the
death of Nebuchadnezzar (561 B.C.), whose reign was the high-
water mark of Chaldean civilization, the old civilized lands of ^^"'^^
the Orient seemed to have lost most of their former power to
go forward and to make fresh discoveries and new conquests
in civilization, such as they had been making during three great
ages on the Nile and three similar ages on the Two Rivers.
Indeed the leadership of the Semitic peoples in the early world
was drawing near its close, and they were about to give way
before the advance of new peoples of the Indo-European race
(Section 21). The nomads of the southern desert were about
to yield to the hardy peoples of the northern and eastern moun-
tains, and to these we must now turn.

QUESTIONS

Section 18. Where does the second chapter of history on the
Two Rivers carry us? Describe the region about Assur. Who
founded Assur, and when ? Whence did they gain the beginnings of
civilization .? Was Assur also exposed to influences from the North ?
What was the result ? Who were the Western rivals of Assur ? Tell
about the Arameans and what they accomplished. What important
thing did they carry throughout Western Asia.? What prevented
Assyria from reaching the Mediterranean t What had Assyrian civili-
zation achieved by this time 1 What has recent excavation discovered
under the palace of Assur ?

Section i 9. What city had chiefly prevented Assyria from con-
quering the West? When was Damascus captured by Assyria? What
was the result in the West? Who was the founder of the leading

I/O

Ancient Times

line of Assyrian emperors? Describe his new city. What was the
extent of the Assyrian Empire? How was its government carried
on ? What can you say about Assyrian warfare ? about architecture
and sculpture ? Was all this of Assyrian origin ? What can you say
of the reign of Sennacherib in war, building, or any other important
matters ? What can you tell of Assurbanipal ? What dangers within
and without caused the fall of Assyria? What peoples destroyed
Nineveh, and when ? What became of the ruins of the city ? What
progress resulted from the rule of the Assyrian Empire?

Section 20. What empire formed the third chapter of history
on the Two Rivers ? Who founded it, and when ? Whence did they
come ? Who was the greatest Chaldean king ? What did he accom-
plish in war ? What people did he carry away captive ? Describe
his buildings at Babylon. Had there been any large cities in Baby-
lonia before his time ? Whence did he borrow much in the architec-
ture of his palace? What has become of his buildings? In what
science did the Chaldeans make great progress ? What astronomical
names have descended to us from them? Could they predict an
eclipse? To what race did the Chaldeans belong? What race was
to follow them in oriental leadership ?

Note. The following sketch shows us a temple of the Assyrians at Assur as
restored by the excavators. Behind the temple court is the holy of holies, and on
each side of it rises a temple tower with a winding ascent, after the old Babylonian
manner (§ 152). It was from such towers that the tower architecture of the
early world arose, eventually producing our own church spires, of which the
Babylonian temple tower was the ancestor (see Fig. 272).

CHAPTER VI

THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE

Section 21. The Indo-European Peoples and
THEIR Dispersion 1

We have seen that the Arabian desert has been a great 242. The
reservoir of unsettled population, which was continually leaving grasslands
the grasslands on the margin of the desert and shifting over
into the towns to begin a settled life (§ 135). Corresponding
to these grasslands of the Souths there are similar grasslands"
in the North (Fig. 112). These Northern grasslands stretch from
the lower Danube eastward along the north side of the Black
Sea through southern Russia and far into Asia north and east

Note. The headpiece above shows ancient fire altars still surviving in Persia.
Nearby are the tombs of the great Persian kings (Fig. ii8) not far from Persep-
olis (Fig. 116), the capital of Persia, and these kings doubtless often worshiped
before the fires blazing on these altars.

^ Section 2i should be carefully worked over by the teacher with the class
before the class is permitted to study it alone. The diagram (Fig. 112) should
be put on the blackboard and explained in detail by the teacher, and the class
should then be prepared to put the diagram on the board from memory. This
should be done again when the study of the Greeks is begun (§ 370), and a
third time when Italy and the Romans are taken up.

171

1/2 Ajicient Times

of the Caspian (see map, p. 676). In ancient times they always
had a wandering shepherd population, and time after time, for
thousands of years, these Northern nomads have poured forth
over Europe and Western Asia, just as the desert Semites of
the South have done over the Fertile Crescent (§ 135).

243. The two These nomads of the North were from the earliest times a
European great white race, which we call Indo-European. We can perhaps
and Semitic |^ggj. explain this term by saying that these Indo-Europeans

were the ancestors of the present peoples of Europe. As our
forefathers came from Europe, the Indo-European nomads
were also our own ancestors. These nomads of the Northern
grasslands, our ancestors, began to migrate in very ancient
times, moving out along diverging routes. They at last ex-
tended in an imposing line from the frontiers of India on the
east, westward across all Europe to the Atlantic, as they do
to-day (Fig. 1 1 2). This great northern line was confronted on
the south by a similar line of Semitic peoples, extending from
Babylonia on the east, through Phoenicia and the Hebrews west-
ward to Carthage and similar Semitic setdements of Phoenicia
in the western Mediterranean (§ 135, and map, p. 288).

244. The The history of the ancient world, as we are now to follow it,
twe?if the Two was largely made up of the struggle between this southern Semitic
Eirro~ean^^^ ^^'^^' ^hich issucd from the Southern grasslands, and the northern
and Semitic Indo-European line, which came forth from the Northern grass-
lands to confront the older civilizations represented in the south-
em line. Thus as we look at the diagram (Fig. 112) we see
the two great races facing each other across the Mediterranean
like two vast armies stretching from Western Asia westward to
the Atlantic. The later wars between Rome and Carthage
(Sections 78, 79) represent some of the operations on the
Semitic left wing; while the triumph of Persia over Chaldea
(Section 23) is a similar outcome on the Semitic right wing.

The result of the long conflict was the complete triumph of
our ancestors, the Indo-European line, which conquered along
the center and both wings and finally gained unchallenged

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1/4 Ancient Times

245. Tri- supremacy throughout the Mediterranean world under the
European Greeks and Romans (Sections 37-98). This triumph was ac-
the i°ndo- companied by a long struggle for the mastery between the mem-
European bers of the northern line themselves. Among them the victory

moved from the east end to the west end of the northern line,
as first the Persians, then the Greeks, and finally the Romans,
gained control of the Mediterranean and oriental world.

246. The Let us now turn back to a time before the Indo-European
European people had left their original home on the grasslands. Modern
an?their°^^^ Study has not yet determined with certainty the region where
original home the parent people of the Indo-European nomads had their

home. The indications now are that this original home was
on the great grassy steppe in the region east and northeast of
the Caspian Sea. Here, then, probably lived the parent peo-
ple of all the later Indo-European race. At the time when they
were still one people, they were speaking one and the same
tongue. From this tongue have descended all the languages
later spoken by the civilized peoples of modern Europe, includ-
ing, of course, our own English, as we shall see.

247. Civili- Before they dispersed, the parent people were still in the

Zation of _, .ri \ ^ ...

the indo- Stone Age for the most part, though copper was begmnmg to
parerS?eople ^ome in, and the time must therefore have been not later than
2500 B.C. Divided into numerous tribes, they wandered at will,
seeking pasture for their flocks, for they already possessed
domestic animals, including cattle and sheep. But chief among
their domesticated beasts was the horse^ which, as we recall,
was still entirely unknown to the civilized oriental nations
until after Hammurapi's time (see § 197). They employed
him not only for riding but also for drawing their wheeled
carts. The ox already bore the yoke and drew the plow, for
some of the tribes had adopted a settled mode of life, and
cultivated grain, especially barley. Being without writing, they
possessed but little government and organization. But they
were the most gifted and the most highly imaginative people
of the ancient world.

The Medo-Persian Empire

175

As their tribes wandered farther and farther apart they lost 248. The
contact with each other. Local peculiarities in speech and cus- th?ind^" °
toms became more and more marked, until wide differences pa"eTtp?ople
resulted. While at first the different groups could doubtless
understand one another when they met, these differences in
speech gradually became so great that the widely scattered
tribes, even if they happened to meet, could no longer make
themselves understood, and finally they lost all knowledge
of their original kinship. This kinship has only been redis-
covered in very recent times. The final outcome, in so far as
speech was concerned, was the languages of modern civilized
Europe ; so that, beginning with England in the West and going
eastward, we can trace more than one common word from
people to people entirely across Europe into northern India.
Note the following :

WEST

English German Latin Greek Si'dlv^sriN

brother bruder frater phrater brata

mother mutter mater meter matar

father vater pater pater pitar

EAST

ToKHAR East Indian

(in Central Asia) (Sanskrit)

pracar

bhrata

macar

mata

pacar

pita

In the West these wanderers from the Northern grasslands had
already crossed the Danube and were far down in the Balkan
peninsula by 2000 B.C. Some of them had doubtless already
entered Italy by this time (§ 775), illustrating what we learned
in studying Stone Age Europe, about the shifting habits of
shepherd or nomad peoples, as they drive their flocks from
pasture to pasture (§ 35). These Western tribes were, of course,
the ancestors of the Greeks and Romans. We shall later join
them and follow them in their conquest of the Mediterranean
(Sections 37-98). Before doing so, however, we have to watch
the eastern wing of the vast Indo-European line as it swings
southward and comes into collision with the right wing of the
Semitic line,

176

Ancient Times

249. The

Aryans; the
advance of
the eastern
wing of
the Indo-
European
line

250. Sanskrit-
speaking
tribes in
India

251. Medes
and Persians
further west
toward the
Fertile
Crescent

Section 22. The Aryan Peoples and the Iranian
Prophet Zoroaster

It is now an established fact that the easternmost tribes of the
Indo-European line, having left the parent people, were pastur-
ing their herds in the great steppe on the east of the Caspian by
about 2000 B.C. Here they formed a people properly called the
Aryans ^ (see Fig. 112), and here they made their home for some
time. The Aryan people had no writing, and they have left no
monuments. Nevertheless, the beliefs of their descendants show
that the Aryan tribes already possessed a high form of religion,
which summed up conduct as " good thoughts, good deeds."
Fire occupied an important place in this faith, and they had a
group of priests whom they called " fire-kindlers."

When the Aryans broke up, perhaps about 1800 B.C., they
separated into two groups. The Eastern tribes wandered south-
eastward and eventually arrived in India. In their sacred books,
which we call the Vedas, written in Sanskrit, there are echoes
of the days of Aryan unity, and they furnish many a hint of the
ancient Aryan home on the east of the Caspian.

The other group, whose tribes kept the name " Aryan " in the
form " Iran," "^ also left this home and pushed westward and
southwestward into the mountains bordering our Fertile Crescent
(§ 133). We call them Iranians, and among them were two

1 The Indo-European parent people apparently had no common name for
all their tribes as a great group. The term " Aryan " is often popularly applied to
the parent people, but this custom is incorrect. " Aryan " (from which " Iran " and
" Iranian" are later derivatives) designated a group of tribes, a fragment of the
parent people, which detached itself and found a home for some centuries' just
east of the Caspian Sea. When we hear the term " Aryan " applied to the Indo-
European peoples of Europe, or when it is said that we ourselves are descended
from the Aryans, we must remember that this use of the word is historically in-
correct, though very common. The Aryans, then, were Eastern descendants of
the Indo-European parent people, as we are Western descendants of the parent
people. The Aryans are our distant cousins but not our ancestors.

2 They have given their name to the great Iranian plateau, which stretches
from the Zagros Mountains eastward to the Indus River. This whole region was
known in Greek and Roman days as Ariana, which (like " Iran") is, of course,
derived from " Aryan " (see map, p. 436).

The Medo-Perstan Empire ^77 ( ^— ^

powerful tribes, the Medes and the Persians.-^ We recall how, | ^
in the days of Assyria's imperial power the Medes descended
from the northern mountains against Nineveh (§ 230). This
southern advance of the Indo-European eastern wing was thus
overwhelming the Semitic right wing (Fig. 112) occupying the
Fertile Crescent.

By 600 B.C., after the fall of Assyria (§ 231), the Medes had 252. The
established a powerful Iranian empire in the mountains east of (indo-
the Tigris. It extended from the Persian Gulf, where it included iJJ^pPg^"^
the Persians, northwestward in the general line of the mountains threatens

Chaldean

to the Black Sea region. The front of the Indo-European east- (Semitic)
ern wing was thus roughly parallel with the Tigris at this point, ^ ^ °"'^
but its advance was not to stop' here. Nebuchadnezzar (§ 234)
and the Chaldean masters of Babylon looked with anxious
eyes at this dangerous Median power. The Chaldeans on the
Euphrates represented the leadership of men of Semitic blood
from the southern pastures. Their leadership was now to be
followed by that of men of Indo-European blood from the
northern pastures (§ 242). As we see the Chaldeans giving
way before the Medes and Persians (§ 261), let us bear in
mind that we are watching a great racial change, and remember
that these new Iranian masters of the East were our kindred ;
for both we and they have descended from the same wander-
ing shepherd ancestors, the Indo-European parent people, who
once dwelt in the far-off pastures of inner Asia, probably five
thousand years ago.

All of these Iranians possessed a beautiful religion inherited 253- The
from old Aryan days (see § 249). Somewhere in the east- the Iranians
ern mountains, as far back as 1000 B.C., an Iranian named
Zoroaster began to look out upon the life of men in an effort
to find a new religion which would meet the needs of man's
life. He watched the ceaseless struggle between good and evil

1 About 2100 B.C., in the age of Hammurapi, long before the Iranians reached
the Fertile Crescent, their coming was announced in advance by the arrival of
the horse in Babylonia (see § 197).

178

Ancient Times

254. Judg-
ment here-
after

255. Zoroas-
ter preaches
his new
religion

which seemed to meet him wherever he turned. To him it
seemed to be a struggle between a group of good beings on the
one hand and of evil powers on the other. The Good became
to him a divine person, whom he called Mazda, or Ahura-
mazda, which means " Lord of Wisdom " and whom he re-
garded as God. Ahuramazda was surrounded by a group of
helpers much like angels, of whom one of the greatest was the
Light, called " Mithras." Opposed to Ahuramazda and his
helpers it was finally believed there was an evil group led by
a great Spirit of Evil named Ahriman. It was he who later
was inherited by Jews and Christians as Satan.

Thus the faith of Zoroaster grew up out of the struggle of
life itself, and became a great power in life. It was one of the
noblest religions ever founded. It called upon every man to
stand on one side or the other; to fill his soul with the Good
and the Light or to dwell in the Evil and the Darkness. What-
ever course a man pursued, he must expect a judgment here-
after. This was the earliest appearance in Asia of belief in a last
judgment. Zoroaster maintained the old Aryan veneration of fire
(§ 249) as a visible symbol of the Good and the Light, and he
preserved the ancient fire-kindling priests (headpiece, p. 171).

Zoroaster went about among the Iranian people, preaching his
new religion, and probably for many years found but little
response to his efforts. We can discern his hopes and fears
alike in the little group of hymns he has left, probably the only
words of the great prophet which have survived. It is charac-
teristic of the horse-loving Iranians that Zoroaster is said to
have finally converted one of their great kings by miraculously
healing the king's crippled horse. The new faith had gained a
firm footing before the prophet's death, however, and before
700 B.C. it was the leading religion among the Medes in the
mountains along the Fertile Crescent. Thus Zoroaster became
the first great founder of a religious faith.

As in the case of Mohammed, it is probable that Zoroaster
could neither read nor write, for the Iranians possessed no

The Medo-Persian Empire 179

system of writiner in his day (see § 266). Besides the hymns 256. The

r -i ■ 1-1 1 jj^ Avesia, the

mentioned above, fragments of his teachmg have descended to Persian Bible
us in writings put together in the early Christian centuries, over
a thousand years after the prophet's death. They form a book
known as the Avesta. This we may call the Bible of the Persians.

Section 23. Rise of the Persian Empire: Cyrus
No people became more zealous followers of Zoroaster than 257. The

Ml 1 -r> • '-n-i- u emergence of

the group of Iranian tnbes known as the Persians. Inrougn the Persians;

them a knowledge of him has descended to us. At the fall of Jr^^didons ^"'^

Nineveh (606 B.C.) (§ 231) they were already long settled in

the region at the southeastern end of the Zagros Mountains,

just north of the Persian Gulf. Its shores are here little better

than desert, but the valleys of the mountainous hinterland are

rich and fertile. Here the Persians occupied a district some

four hundred miles long. They were a rude mountain peasant

folk, leading a settled agricultural life, with simple institutions,

no art, no writing or literature, but with stirring memories of

their past. As they tilled their fields and watched their flocks

they told many a tale of their Aryan ancestors and of the

ancient prophet whose faith they held.

They acknowledged themselves vassals of their kinsmen the
Medes, who ruled far to the north and northwest of them. 258. Cyrus

„ . , . ., 1 ,1. . 1 • r x->i / of Anshan

One of their tnbes dwelling m the mountains or Elam (see organizes
map, p. 100), a tribe known as Anshan, was organized as a Jribes^nto"a

little kinardom. About fifty years after the fall of Nineveh this nation and

. conquers

litde kingdom of Anshan wPS rnipH over by a Persian named the Medes

Cyrus. He succeeded in uniting the other tribes of his kindred

Persians into a nation. Thereupon Cyrus at once rebejled

against the rule of the Medes. He gathered his peasant
soldiery, and within three years he defeated the Median king
and made himself master of the Median territory. The ex-
traordinary career of Cyrus was now a spectacle upon which
all eyes in the West were fastened with wonder and alarm.

i8o

Ancient Times

259. The
Persian army

260. Cyrus
conquers
the West

The overflowing energies of the new conqueror and his
peasant soldiery proved irresistible. The Persian peasants seem
to have been remarkable archers. The mass of the Persian

army was made up
~Y of bowmen (Fig. 1 1 3),
whose storm of arrows
at long range over-
whelmed the enemy
long before the hand-
to-hand fighting be-
gan. Bodies of the
skillful Persian horse-
men, hovering on
either wing, then rode
in and completed the
destruction of the foe.
These arrangements
were taken by the
Persians from the As-
syrians, the greatest
soldiers the East had

Fig. 113. Persian Soldiers

Although carrying spears when doing duty
as palace guards, these men were chiefly
archers (§ 259), as is shown by the size of
the large quivers on their backs. The bow
hangs on the left shoulder. The royal body-
guard may also be seen wielding their spears
around the Persian king at the battle of
Issus (Fig. 202). Notice the splendid robes
worn by these palace guards. The figures
are done in brightly colored glazed brick —
an art borrowed by the Persians (see Plate II,
p. 164) and employed to beautify the palace
walls. The restoration in Fig. 204 shows
such a frieze of archers in position along
the wall of the palace court

ever seen.

The great states_
Babylonia rChaldea)
and Egypt, Tydia un-
der King Croesus in
western Asia Minor
(§ 497), and even
Sparta in Greece
(§ 426) formed a
powerful combination
against this sudden
menace, which had
risen like the flash
of a meteor in the

The Medo-Persian Empire 1 8 1

eastern sky. Without an instant's delay Cyrus struck at Croesus
of Lydia, the chief" author of "'tKe'TiosHIe' comlDmation . One
Persian victory followed after another. By 546 B.C. Sardis,
the Lydian capital (Fig. 173), had fallen, and Croesus, the
Lydian king, was a prisoner in the hands of Cyrus. Cyrus at
once gained also the southern coasts of Asia Minor. Within
five years the power of the little Persian kingdom in the
mountains of Elam had swept across Asia Minor to the Mediter-
ranean and had become the leading state in the oriental world.

Fig. 114. Barrel-Shaped Clay Record of the Capture of
Babylon by Cyrus (539 b.c.)

It tells how "without battle and without fighting Marduk [God of
Babylon] made him [Cyrus] enter into his city of Babylon ; he spared
Babylon tribulation, and Nabonidus the [Chaldean] king who feared
him not, he delivered into his hand." Nabonidus, the Chaldean king of
Babylon, was not in favor with the priests, and they assisted in deliver-
ing the city to Cyrus

Turning eastward again, Cyrus had no trouble jnjdefeating 261. Cyrus
the Chaldean army led by the young crown prince Belshazzar, Babylonia
wfiose name in the Book of Daniel (see Dan. v) is a household (Chaldea)
word throughout the Christian world. In spite of the vast walls
erected by Nebuchadnezzar to protect Babylon (§ 236), the
Persiansentered the great city in 539 e.g., seemingly without
resistance (Fig. 114).

Thus only sixty-seven years after the fall of Nineveh (§ 231)
had opened the conflict between the former dwellers in the
Northern and the Southern grasslands, the Semitic East

l82

Ancient Times

completely collapsed before the advance of the Indo-European
power. Some ten years later rynis fpll in battle (t;28 b.c.\
as he was fighting with the nomads in northeastern Iran. His
body was reverentiy laid away in a massive tomb of impressive
simplicity at Pasargadae (Fig. 115), where Cyrus himself had
established the capital of Persia. Thus passed away the first
great conqueror of Indo-European blood.

All Western Asia was now subject to the Persian king ; but
in 525 B.C., only three years after the death of Cyrus, hiS-Son_
Cambyses conquered Egypt. This conquest of the only remain-
ing ancient oriental power rounded out the Persian Empire to
include the whole civilized East from the Nile Delta, around
the entire eastern end of the Mediterranean to the ^gean,
and from this western boundary eastward almost to India.
The great task had consumed just twenty-five years since the
overthrow of the Medes by Cyrus. It was an achievement for
which the Assyrian Empire had prepared the way, and the
Persians were now to learn much from the great civilizations
which had preceded them.

Section 24. The Civilization of the Persian
Empire (about 530 to 330 b.c.)

The Persians found Babylon a great and splendid city, with
the vast fortifications of Nebuchadnezzar stretching from river
to river and his sumptuous buildings visible far across the Baby-
lonian plain (§§ 235-236). The city was the center of the
commerce of Western Asia and the greatest market in the early
oriental world. Along the Nile the Persian emperors now ruled
the splendid cities whose colossal monuments we have visited.
These things and the civilized life which the Persians found
along the Nile and the Euphrates soon influenced them greatly,
as we shall see.

Aramaic, the speech of the Aramean merchants who filled
the busy market places of Babylon, had by that time become

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The Me do-Persian Empire 183

the language of the whole Fertile Crescent. Business docu- 265. Ara-

, ■ 11 J . , maic becomes

ments were now wntten in Aramaic with pen and mk on ^^e language
papyrus, and clay tablets bearing cuneiform writing were slowly ^^mSra-
disappearing. The Persian officials were therefore obliged to ti^n in the
carry on their government business, like the collection of taxes,
in the Aramaic tongue throughout the western half of the Per-
sian Empire. Even as far as the Nile and western Asia Minor,
they sent out their government documents in Aramaic, this
universal language of business (Fig. 131).

The government of the Persian kings, like that of the 266. Persians

devise 3.

Assyrian Empire, was thus "bilingual" (§ 206), by which we cuneiform
mean that it employed two languages — Aramaic and the alphabet
old Persian tongue. Even in writing Persian, the Persians
often employed Aramaic letters, as we write English with
Roman letters. At the same time, having probably gained
from Aramaic writing the idea of an alphabet, the Persian
scribes devised another alphabet, of thirty-nine cuneiform signs,
which they employed for writing Persian on clay tablets.
They also used it when they wished to make records on large
monuments of stone (Fig. 117).' Thus the Persians, who had
been so long entirely without writing, began to make enduring
written records after they entered the Fertile Crescent. These
monuments are the earliest Persian documents which have
descended to us.

* This royal stairway, the finest surviving from the ancient world,
was laid out by Darius and finished by Xerxes. A proud inscription of
Darius cut in cuneiform on the wall of the stairway looks down upon
the visitor. It reads : " Darius the king saith : ' This land of Persia,
which Ahuramazda has entrusted to me, the land that is beautiful, that
hath good people and fine horses, — by the will of Ahuramazda and my
will, it fears no enemy.' " The terrace wall is from 30 to 50 feet high,
but the steps of the grand stairway are so low that a horse may be
easily ridden up the steps to the terrace. Leading from the stairway is
the magnificent gate built by Xerxes, guarded on either hand by huge
winged bulls, an art symbol borrowed by Persia from Assyria. Beyond
the gate still rise two splendid columns of the imposing colonnade
erected by Xerxes to adorn this entrance.

Fig. 117. Triumphal Monument of Darius the Great, the
RosETTA Stone of Asia, on the Cliff of Behistun

This impressive monument is the most important historical document
surviving in Asia. It is made up of four important parts : the relief
sculptures {A) and the three inscriptions (B, C, B). B is a great inscrip-
tion, in columns some 12 feet high, recording the triumph of Darius over
all his enemies in the extensive revolts which followed his coronation.
It is in the Persian language, written with the new cuneiform alphabet of
thirty-nine letters which the Persians devised (§ 266). The other two in-
scriptions {C and D) are translations of the Persian (B). C therefore
contains the same record as the Persian {B) ; but it is in the Babylonian
language and is written in Babylonian cuneiform with its several hun-
dred wedge-signs (§ 149). Z>, the third inscription, is also cuneiform,
in the language of the region of Susa, and hence is called Susian. Thus
the Great King published his triumph in the three most important
languages of this eastern region and placed the record overlooking a
main road at Behistun (see map, p. 436) where the men of the caravans
passing between Babylon and the Iranian Plateau would look up 300 feet
and see the splendid monument 25 feet high and 50 feet wide. To reach
it requires a dangerous climb, and it was on this lofty cliff, at the risk
of his life, that Sir Henry Rawlinson copied all three of these cunei-
form inscriptions (1835-1847). By the use of these copies Rawhnson
succeeded in deciphering the ancient Babylonian cuneiform (§§ 282-
283) ; and this great monument of Darius therefore enabled modem
historians to recover the lost language and history of Babylonia and
Assyria. It did for Western Asia what the Rosetta Stone did for Egypt
(Drawn from photographs of the British Museum Expedition)
1S4

The Medo-Persian Empire 185

The organization o( such a vast empire, stretching from the 267, Organi-
Indus River to the ^gean Sea (almost as long as the United Persian * ^
States from east to west) and from the Indian Ocean to the ^^rms^^^
deserts of the Caspian, was a colossal task. It demanded an
effort of organization on a greater scale than any ruler had ever
attempted before. It was much too great an undertaking to be
completed by Cyrus. Begun by him, it was carried through by
"nDarius the Great (521-485 B.C.), and his organization remains
one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of the
ancient Orient, if not of the world. The rule of Darius was just,
humane, and intelligent, but the subject peoples had of course
rio voice in government. All that the Great King decreed was
law, and all^ the peoples bowed to his word. Darius says in the
Behistun inscription (Fig. 117), " By the grace of Ahuramazda
these lands have' conformed to my decree ; even as it was com-
manded unto them by me, so was it done." Let us therefore
notice an important fact here revealed : this system was not
only attempting government on a larger scale than the world
had ever seen before, but it was government controlled by one
man. The ancient world never forgot the example of the vast
Persian Empire controlled by one-man power.

Darius did not desire further conquests, but he planned to 268. The
maintain the Empire as he had inherited it. He caused himself provincial
to be made actual king in Egypt and in Babylonia, but the ^X^^^"^
rest of the Empire he divided into twenty provinces, each
called a '' satrapy," each province being under a governor
called a "satrap," who was appointed by the Great King, as
the Persian sovereign^came JoJbe_called. These arrangement^ ^
while similar to those of the Chaldean, Assyrian, and Egyptian
empires, were a further development of provincial rule under
governors. Indeed the Persian Empire was the first example
of a fully organized group of subject peoples and nations ruled
as provinces, an arrangement which we may call a provincial
system. The subject nations, or provinces under Persian rule,
enjoyed a good deal of independence in local matters of their

1 86

Ancient Times

269. Lands,
tribute, and
coinage

270. Darius
turns to the
sea

own government, as long as they paid regular tribute and
furnished recruits for the Great King's army. To discover and
prevent local rebellion, the revolt of a governor or people, a^a^sf
the^ersiaQ^gQYemm<wi^ the Great King kept officials residing
in each subject stateT^who were called, after an old Egyptian

custom, the King's Ears or the King's Eyes»-and whose dtrty
was to report all insubordination. All this was an advance upon
the rule of the Assyrian Empire.

Farm lands were divided into vast domains held by powerful
nobles and other great landowners. There were few small
land-owning farmers. All paid dues to help make up the tribute
collected from all parts of the Empire. In the East it was paid,
as of old, in produce (§§75 and 189). In the West, chiefly Lydia
and the Greek settlements in western Asia Minor (§375), the
coinage of metal was common by 600 b.c. (§ 458), and there
this tribute was paid in coined money. The Eastern countries —
Egypt, Babylonia, and Persia herself — were not quick to adopt
this new convenience. Darius, however, be^n_thej;^iDLage of
^old and permitted his satraps tocoin_§ilj^jer. The rate was
about thirteen to one, that is to say, gold was worth about
thirteen times as much as silver. Thus the great commercial
convenience of coined money* issued by the State began to
come into the Orient during the Persian period.

Nothing shows the wise statesmanship of Darius the Great
more clearly than his remarkable efforts to rr\^V:e Persia g
great sea power. It was no easy task for an inland nation
of shepherds and peasants like the Persians, separated from
the water by desert shores, to gain control of the sea. The
endeavors of Darius in this direction may be compared with
the policy of the German emperor in building up a strong
navy. Unlike Emperor William, however, Darius was obliged
to employ foreign navigators. He dispatched a skillful Medi-
terranean sailor named Scylax to explore the course of the
great Indus River in India. Then Darius ordered him to sail
along the coast of Asia from the mouth of the Indus westward

The Medo-Persian Empire 187

to the Isthmus of Suez. Scylax was the first Western sailor
known to have sailed along this south coast of Asia, so little
known at that time (about 500 B.C.).

At Suez, Darius restored the ancient but long filled-up canal 271. Darius
of the Egyptians connecting the Nile with the Red Sea (§ 104). and West by
Along the ancient route of this canal have been found frag- ^ ^"^^ '^^^^
ments of great stone tablets erected by Darius (see map, p. 36).
They bear an account of the restoration of the canal, in which
we find the words of Darius : "I commanded to dig this canal,
from the stream flowing in Egypt, called the Nile, to the sea
[Red Sea] which stretches from Persia. Then this canal was
dug as I commanded, and ships sailed from Egypt through this
canal to Persia, according to my will." Darius evidently cherished
what proved to be a vain hope, that the south coast of Persia
might come to share in the now growing commerce between
India and the Mediterranean world. As Persia was now lacking
in small landowners, so also was she lacking in small and enter-
prising merchants, who might have become great promoters
of commerce.

Unlike the Assyrians, Darius treated the Phoenician cities 272. Persia

with kindness, and succeeded in organizing a great Phoenician earuSt great

war fleet. We shall find that Darius' son Xerxes could depend ?«» P?wer

^ in Asia

upon many hundreds of ships for warfare and transportation

in the eastern Mediterranean (§§ 501, 510). Thus the more
enlightened Persian kings accomplished what the Assyrian
emperors never achieved, and Persia became the first great
sea power in Asia.

The Persian emgerors maintained communication by excel- 273. System
lent roads" from end to end of the vast Empire. On a smaller communi-"
scale these roads must have done for the Persian Empire what ^^^*°^
railroads do for us. Royal messengers maintained a much more
complete postal system than had already been introduced under
the Assyrian Empire (§ 218). These messengers were surpris-
ingly swift, although merchandise required about as much time
to go from Susa to the ^gean Sea as we now need for going

i88

Ancient Times

around the world. A good example of the effect of these roads
was the incoming of the domestic fowl, which we commonly
call the chicken. Its home was in India and it was unknown

Fig. 1 1 8. Tombs of the Earlier Kings of Persia a Few
Miles from the Ruins of Persepolis

After Cyrus and his son Cambyses had passed away, the Persian kings,
beginning with Darius, excavated their tombs in the face of this cHff,
about six miles from their palaces at Persepolis (Fig. ii8). Here then
are the tombs of Darius I (the Great) (third from the left), Xerxes (at
the far end), Darius II and Artaxerxes I (first and second from the left).
Of the first six great kings of Persia we thus have the tombs of five
(tomb of Cyrus, Fig. 115), leaving out Cambyses the conqueror of Egypt,
whose tomb has never been found. The remaining three royal tombs
belonging to the last three kings of the Achaemenian line (the line of
Darius) (Artaxerxes II, Artaxerxes III, and Darius III) are cut in the
cliff behind the palaces of PersepoUs (Fig. 116). The square above the
colonnade in each tomb front shows a sculptured picture of the king wor-
shiping Ahuramazda before a fire altar. All of these tombs were broken
open and robbed in ancient times, like the tomb of Cyrus (Fig. 115).
Inside, in niches, are the massive stone coffins in which Darius, Xerxes,
and the other kings and their families were buried

in the Mediterranean until Persian communications brought it
from India to the ^gean Sea. Thus the Persians brought to
Europe the barnyard fowl so familiar to us.

The Medo-Persian Empire 189

The ancient Elamite city of Susa, in the Zagros Mountains 274. Capital
(see map, p. 100), was the chief residence and capital (Fig. 204). residences
The mild air of the Babylonian plain, however, attracted the
sovereign during the colder months, when he went to dwell in
the palaces of the vanished Chaldean Empire at Babylon. In
spite of its remoteness the earlier kings had made an effort to
live in their old Persian home. Cyrus built a splendid palace near
the battlefield where he had defeated the Medes at Pasargadse
(see map, p. 436), and Darius also established a magnificent
residence at Persepolis (Fig. 116), some forty miles south of
the palace of Cyrus. Near the ruins of these buildings the
tombs of Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, and the other Persian em-
perors still stand in their native Persia (Fig. 118).

The Persian architects had to learn architecture from the 275. Archi-

tccturc

old oriental peoples now subject to Persia. The enormous
terraces (Fig. 116) on which the Persian palaces stood were
imitated from Babylonia. The winged bulls at the palace
gates (Fig. 116) were copied from those of Assyria and the
West. The vast colonnades (Fig. 116) stretching along the
front and filling the enormous halls — the earliest colonnades
of Asia — had grown up over two thousand years earlier on
the Nile (Fig, 56). Likewise the gorgeously colored palace
walls of enameled brick (Figs. 113, 204, and Plate II, p. 164)
reached Persia from the Nile by the way of Assyria and the
West.-^ Thus the great civilizations which made up the Empire
were merged together in the life of the Persian Empire.

Section 25. Persian Documents and the
Decipherment of Cuneiform

The adoption by the Persians of the mixed oriental civili- 276. The
zation which they found on the Fertile Crescent has been p^ceof^
of the greatest scientific importance. It was the documents Persian docu-

° ^ ments in the

1 It is very noticeable that the Persian architects did not adopt the arch from "^cipher-

Babylonia. On the contrary, each door in the palace of Darius (Fig. 204) is cuneiform
topped with a horizontal block of stone, copied from Egyptian doors.

igo Ancient Times

produced by the Persians when they learned to write cuneiform
there, which first enabled us to read the cuneiform inscriptions
of Western Asia (§ i6o). Without the documents left us by
the Persians, modern scholars would still be unable to read the
thousands of clay tablets which we discussed in our study of
Babylonia and Assyria (Figs. 79, 92, 109, and 126).

277. Cunei- When Aramaic had displaced the Babylonian and Assyrian

form writing , /c ^ \ ^ • i

ceases; Baby- languages (§ 265), there came a time when no one wrote any

Assyria are "^ore clay tablets or other records in the ancient wedge-writing.^

forgotten Nearly two thousand years ago the last man who could read

a cuneiform tablet had passed away. The history of Babylonia

and Assyria was consequently lost under the city mounds

(§§ 15 8- 161) along the Tigris and Euphrates.

278. Grote- Before 1800 a.d. travelers in Persia had brought back to
the sounds Europe a number of copies of cuneiform inscriptions which
PersSn signs ^^^^ ^^^ found engraved on the ruined walls of the Persian
(1802) palaces (Fig. 116). These inscriptions were observed to con-
tain a very limited number of cuneiform signs, and hence there
seemed to be some possibility of learning their meaning. In
1802 a German schoolmaster at Gottingen named Grotefend
identified and read the names of Darius and Xerxes and some
other words and names in these Persian inscriptions. He was
finally able to read two short Persian inscriptions in cuneiform
(Fig. 119). These were the first Persian inscriptions to be
read in modern times, but they were so short that they were
far from including all the cuneiform signs in the Persian
alphabet, and Persian cuneiform writing was still by no
means deciphered.

279. Rawiin- A number of other interested European scholars were able
cipherment to discovcr the sounds of nearly all the other signs in the
of Old Persian Pgi-gian Cuneiform alphabet. Meantime a gifted British officer,
(1847) Sir Henry Rawlinson, while he was stationed in Persia, had suc-
ceeded in collecting far more Persian inscriptions than were avail-
able in Europe. Among them was the great Behistun inscription

1 The latest cuneiform document known is dated 68 b. c.

1 tT fif ^Y K- ►Tr<Tf ^ \2«i! 5 m !<- KT TT K-

3>TH H ^t fr v4«n ^ fn !<- T<y Y? T<- ^«Yy <X m
K Y<T ?f K- m ►< m -!tt v^H <( m K- KT ff K> a

K- ^Tf -M -liT ^-W f> ^T -M ^t7t <t <f? c< <rf <<

l«yT <<K-tttHt ^ ttt ^?«ry ^ m f^-Kf Mjf^jHf^HM

y- ^«yT<(mK- Kt ?f K-v^«ry<< m K- kv Tf t<- m
tim -h\ \6n m tY yf -yr- <:< <ty << \7«tt 5 ?Tt K- T<y

Fig. 119. The Two Old Persian Inscriptions which were
first deciphered and read (§ 278)

The Persian scribes separated the words in their inscriptions by insert-
ing an oblique wedge between all words. The above Arabic numbers
are here added in order to be able to refer to the different words. It will
be seen that these numbers (except /) always stand where the oblique
wedge shows a new word begins. Grotefend (§ 278) noticed that the
same word is repeated a number of times in each of these inscriptions.
In E compare Nos. 2, 4, 5, and 6, and they will be recognized as the
same word. In /^ it occurs also four times (Nos. ^,^,5, and 7). As these
inscriptions were found above the figures of Persian kings, Grotefend
therefore suspected that this frequent word must be the Persian word
for " king." Moreover, as it occurs in both inscriptions as No. 2, the
preceding word (No. /) would probably be the name of the king, the
two words being arranged thus : " Darius [the] king." Grotefend then
found that the words for the titles of the kings of Persia were known
in later Persian documents. Guided by the known titles, he attempted
the following guess as to the arrangement and meaning of the words :

1
unknown name of
a Persian king
5 6

of kings, of king

[the] king [the] great

unknown name of
a Persian king

4
king

8
the son

etc. (6, 7, and 8 meaning "the son of King So-and-so "). He next ex-
perimented with the known names of the kings of Persia, and judg-
ing from their length, he found that the probable name for No. i
in E was "Darius," and for No. i in 7^ was "Xerxes." The result
may be seen in Fig. 120
191

192

Ancient Times

280. Value
of Persian
cuneiform in
deciphering
Babylonian
cuneiform

of Darius (Fig. 117). In 1847 Rawlinson published a complete
alphabet of the Old Persian cuneiform, containing thirty-nine
phonetic signs. Along with this alphabet he published also a

complete transla-

Kh - sha - y - a - r - sha - a . r i -r^ •

jfc_» . ^. — ^^ ^y. ^^. tion of the Persian
«TT \ I^TTT^<\TTT portion of the long

Behistun inscrip-
tion (^ in Fig. 117).
This showed that
he had completed
the decipherment
of the Old Persian
cuneiform — a feat
all the more re-
markable on the
part of Rawlinson
because he worked
in the Orient, al-
most entirely in ig-
norance of parallel
work by scholars
in Europe.

Scholars were
now able for the
first time to read.
Old Persian inscrip-
tions, and much
valuable informa-
tion was gained^
especially from a
study of the great
Behistun monu-
ment (Fig. 117). But the number of Persian inscriptions sur-
viving is very small. The chief value of the ability to read
ancient Persian cuneiform records lay in the fact that this

Fig. 120. The Name of Xerxes in Old
Persian Cuneiform

This is the first word in Fig. 119, supposed by
Grotefend to be " Xerxes." Now, just as our
" Charles " is an imperfect form of the ancient
name "Carolus," so the name we call " Xerxes "
waspronouncedbythe old Persians A'>^j/^^jj/drrj/^rt!.
The above seven signs therefore should be
read : Kh-sha-y-a-r-sha-a. Grotefend in this
way learned the sounds for which these signs
stood. Now some of these signs appear in the
word Grotefend thought was " king " in Per-
sian. Hence it was now possible for Grotefend
to see if he could find out how to pronounce
the ancient Persian word for " king." And the
reader can do the same. Let him copy on a slip
of paper the first three signs in the word sup-
posedly meaning "king"; for example, use
word 2 in Fig. 119. Now take these three
signs and compare them with the signs in
"Xerxes" (Fig. 120). The student will find that
the three signs he has copied are the same as
the first, second, and seventh signs in the word
"Xerxes" (Fig. 120). Let us write down in a
row the sounds of these three signs (first, second,
and seventh), and we find we have Kh-sha-a.
The ancient Persian word for " king" must have
begun with the sounds Kh-sha-a. When we
compare this with " shah," the title of the
present king of Persia, it is evident that Grote-
fend was on the right road to decipher Old
Persian cuneiform

The Medo-Persian Empire 193

Persian writing might form a bridge leading over to an under-
standing of ancient Babylonian cuneiform.

Scholars had early discovered that the inscription C on the 281. Dis-

^ , , . . , , ... covery that

Behistun monument was written with the same cuneiiorm signs one of the
which were also observable on many of the older clay tablets inscriptions
(Fies. 80 and 02) and stone monuments found in Babylonia, was in the

^ ° ^ ^ -^ . , same lan-

Meantime the museums of London and Paris were receiving guage and
great sculptured slabs of alabaster (Figs. 10 1, 105, and 106) Sioseof^^
from Nineveh and the palace of Sargon (Fig. 104), bearing f^^ Assyria,
many inscriptions, all in the language and writing of inscription
C on the Behistun monument (Fig. 117). Scholars therefore
perceived that if they could decipher inscription C at Behistun,
they would be able to read all the ancient documents of Baby-
lonia and Assyria, reaching back to a far greater age than the
few surviving Persian inscriptions.

Every indication led to the conclusion that inscription C at 282. Behis-

. , ri-r,. • tuJ^ monu-

Behistun was a Babylonian translation of the Persian portion, ment, the
already translated by Rawlinson. The Behistun monument s^on^g^^f
might therefore become the Rosetta Stone of Western Asia, Western Asia
and enable scholars to read the ancient Babylonian language,
as the Rosetta Stone had enabled them to read the ancient
Egyptian language. We can diagram this situation thus:

Rosetta Stone Behistun Monument

Containing ; Containing :

1. Egyptian inscription i. Babylonian cuneiform inscrip-
deciphered by scholars by tion to be deciphered by scholars
comparison with by comparison with

2. The Greek translation 2. The Persian translation under-
understood by scholars stood by scholars (since Rawlin-

son's translation, § 279)

Many scholars attacked the problem, but they found it far 283. Rawlin-

more difficult than the decipherment of the Persian had been ; cipherment

for the Persian cuneiform had contained only forty signs, while the ? [g^-^^^'^"'^"
Babylonian was found to use over five hundred (see § 209).

194

Ancient Times

It was again Rawlinson, however, who accomplished the task.
In 1850 he published his results. They were followed the
next year by a full translation of the Babylonian portion of
the Behistun inscription.

The city-mounds of Babylonia and Assyria at once began
to speak and to tell us, piece by piece, the three great chapters
of history along the Two Rivers (Sections 14-20) — some-
thing over twenty-five hundred years of the story of man in
Western Asia, of which the world before had been entirely
ignorant. A group of scholars arose who devoted themselves
to the study of the vast bqdy of cuneiform documents on clay
and stone which was then coming and still continues to come
from the ruined cities of Assyria and Babylonia (Fig. 84). We
call such scholars Assyriologists. Thus it happened that we
owe to documents left us by the Persian kings the creation of
a new and wonderful branch of knowledge and the recovery
of the ancient history of Western Asia.

Section 26. The Results of Persian Rule
AND ITS Religious Influence

For the oriental world as a whofe, Persian mlp meant
about two Hundrec! years oi peaceful prosperity (ending about
333 B.C.). The Persian kings, however, as time went on, were
no longer as strong and skillful as Cyrus and Darius. They
loved luxury and ease and left much of the task of ruling to
their governors and officials. This meant corrupt and ineffective
government ; the result was weakness and decline.
286. Charac- The later world, especially the Greeks, often represented
Persian kings the Persian rulers as cruel and barbarous oriental tyrants,
and their rule 'pj^jg unfavorable opinion is not wholly justified. The Persian
emperors felt a deep sense of obligation to give just govern-
ment to the nations of the earth. Darius the Great in the
Behistun Inscription (Fig. 117) says: "On this account Ahu-
ramazda brought me help, . . . because I was not wicked,

The Me do-Persian Empire 195

nor was I a liar, nor was I a tyrant, neither I nor any of my
line. I have ruled according to righteousness." There can be
no doubt that the Persian Empire, the largest the ancient world
had thus far seen, enjoyed a government far more just and
humane than any that had preceded it in the East.

Many such statements as that of Darius just quoted show 287. Spread
that the Persian rulers were devoted followers of Zoroaster's religion^
teaching. Their power carried this noble faith throughout
Western Asia and especially into Asia Minor. Here Mithras,
regarded by Zoroaster as a helper of Ahuramazda (§ 253),
appeared as a hero of light, and .finally as a Sun-god, who
gradually outshone Ahuramazda himself. From Asia Minor
Mithras passed into Europe, and, as we shall see, the faith
in the mighty Persian god spread far and wide through the
Roman Empire, to become a dangerous competitor of Chris-
tianity (§1064).

In matters of religion, as in many other things, the Persian 288. Far-
Empire completed the breakdown of national boundaries and compSkion
the beginning of a long period when the leading religions of a^ongonen-
the East were called upon to compete in a great contest for the
mastery among all the nations. The most important of the re-
ligions which thus found themselves thrown into a world struggle
for chief place under the dominion of Persia was the religion
of the Hebrews. While we leave the imperial family of Persia
to suffer that slow decline which always besets a long royal
line in the Orient, we may glance briefly at the little Hebrew
kingdom among the Persian vassals in the West, which was
destined to influence the history of man more profoundly than
any of the great empires of the early world.

QUESTIONS

Section 21. What great race inhabited the northern grasslands?
How did their migrations finally distribute them? What rival line
confronted them on the south? Describe the life and dispersion of
the Indo-European parent people. Where are their descendants now ?

196

Ancient Times

Section 22. From whom did the Aryan people come forth?
What became of them when they left their first home ? What great
tribes of the Aryans came toward the Fertile Crescent? Who was
their great prophet, and what did he teach ? When did he probably
live?

Section 23. What can you say of the rise and conquests of
Cyrus? What race did he subdue on the Fertile Crescent? What
race thus became the leaders? What was the extent of the Persian
Empire? How long had it taken to conquer it? Give dates.

Section 24. Did the Persians possess a civilization like those
which they found in Babylonia and Egypt? Describe the organi-
zation of the Empire by Darius, and his rule. What was the land
system like? What can you^say about his plans for commerce by
sea and land? Where was the capital? How did Persian architec-
ture arise? Give examples.

Section 25. Can you write the three signs with which the ancient
Persians began their word for " king "? What is the modern Persian
word for " king " ? What monument became the Rosetta Stone of
Western Asia ? Can you explain how ? . What was the result ?

Section 26. How long did the Persian Empire last? Give dates.
What can you say about the character of the Persian kings ? What
was happening among the religions of the East? What great reli-
gion was involved in this struggle ?

Note. The sketch below shows the ruins of Persepolis (cf. Fig. 116).

"'■'''#

\"" .:il£U#.T-. m

§^^l

CHAPTER VII

THE HEBREWS AND THE DECLINE OF THE ORIENT

Section 27. Palestine and the Predecessors of
THE Hebrews there

The home of the Hebrews was on the west end of the 289. Situ-
Fertile Crescent (§ 132), in a land now called Palestine.^ It extent of
is the region lying along the southeast corner of the Mediter- homf ^"/(he^
ranean — a narrow strip between desert and sea; for while the Hebrews
sea limits it on the west, the wastes of the desert-bay (§ 133)
sweep northward^ forming the eastern boundary of Palestine
(see map, p. 100). It was about one hundred and fifty miles
long, and less than ten thousand square miles are included
within these limits ; that is, Palestine was somewhat larger
than the state of Vermont.

Much of this area is unproductive, for the desert intrudes 290. Char-
upon southern Palestine and rolls northward in gaunt and Palestine
arid limestone hills, even surrounding Jerusalem (Fig. 127).
The valleys of northern Palestine, however, are rich and

Note. The above headpiece shows us a caravan of Canaanites trading in
Egypt about 1900 B.C. as they appeared on the estate of a feudal baron in Egypt
(§ 99). The Egyptian noble had this picture of them painted with others in his
tomb (Fig. 57), where it still is. Observe the shoes, sandals, and gay woolen
clothing, the costume of the Palestinian towns, worn by these Canaanites ; observe
also the metal weapons which they carry. The manufacture of these things
created industries which had begun to flourish among the towns in Syria and
Palestine by this time. Notice also the type of face, with the prominent nose,
which shows that Hittite blood was already mixed with the Semitic blood of
these early dwellers in Palestine (Fig. 146).

1 On the origin of the name see § 379.
197

198

Ancient Times

productive. The entire land is without summer rains and is
dependent upon a rainy season (the winter) for moisture.
There is no opportunity for irrigation, and the harvest is
therefore scantier than in lands enjoying summer rains. Only

Fig. 121. Ancient Egyptian Painting of a Brickyard with

Asiatic Captives engaged in Brickmaking (Fifteenth

Century b.c.)

The Hebrew slaves working in the Egyptian brickyards (see Exod. i,
14 and V, 6-19) must have looked like this when Moses led them forth
into Asia (§ 293). At the left below, the soft clay is being mixed in
two piles; one laborer helps load a basket of clay on the shoulder of
another, who carries it to the brick-molder, at the right above. Here a
laborer empties the clay from his basket, while the molder before him
fills with clay an oblong box, which is the mold. He has already
finished three bricks. At the left above, a molder spreads out the
soft bricks with spaces between for the circulation of air to make
them dry quickly in the sun. The overseer, staff in hand, sits in the
upper right-hand corner, and below him we see a workman carrying
away the dried bricks, hanging from a yoke on his shoulders. Thus
were made the bricks used for thousands of years for the buildings
forming so large a part of the cities of the ancient world, from the
Orient to Athens and Rome (§ 548)

the northern end of the Palestinian coast has any harbors
(Fig. 159), but these were early seized by the Phoenicians
(Sections 39-40). Palestine thus remained cut off from the
sea. In natural resources it was too poor (Fig. 129) ever to
develop prosperity or political power like its great civilized
neighbors on the Nile and Euphrates or in Syria and Phoenicia.

The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient 199

Here at the west end of the Fertile Crescent, as at the east 291. Mixture

end, the Semitic nomads from the desert-bay (reread Section 13) civilization

mingled with the dwellers in the northern mountains. The jJ^fore^t^T^

Northerners, chiefly Hittites from Asia Minor (§§351-360), left Hebrews

Dosscsscd it *

their mark on the Semites of Palestine, The prominent aquiline Babylonian '

nose, still considered to be the mark of the Semite, especially ^"*^"S

of the Jew, was really a feature belonging to the (non-Semitic)

Hittites, who intermarried with the people of Palestine and

gave them this Hittite type of face (see Fig. 146). Strange

faces from many a foreign clime therefore crowded the market

places of Palestine, amid a babel of various dialects. Here

the rich jewelry, bronze d^es, and ivory furniture of the Nile

craftsmen (Fig. 73) ffRngled with the pottery of the ^gean

Islands (Fig. 136), the red earthenware of the Hittites, or the

gay woolens of Babylonia. The donkeys (headpiece, p. 197),

which lifted their complaining voices above the hubbub of the

market, had grazed along the shores of both Nile and Euphrates,

and their masters had trafficked beneath the Babylonian temple

towers (Fig. 104) as well as under the shadow of the Theban

obelisks (Fig. 65). We recall how traffic with Babylonia had

taught these Western Semites to write the cuneiform hand

(§ 187). Palestine was the entrance to the bridge between

Asia and Africa — a middle ground where the civilizations of

Egypt and Babylonia, of Phoenicia, the ^gean, and Asia Minor,

all represented by their wares, met and commingled as they did

nowhere else in the early Orient.

Just as the merchandise of the surrounding nations met in 292. Pales-
peaceful competition in the markets of Palestine, so the armies ^l^^ battle-
of these nations also met there in battle. The situation of ground of the

Palestine, between its powerful neighbors on the Nile and on the
Euphrates, made it the battleground where these great nations
fought for many centuries (§ 213). Over and over again un-
happy Palestine went through the experience of little Belgium
in the conflict between Germany and France in 19 14. Egypt
held Palestine for many centuries (§ 108). Later we recall

early Orient

200

Ancient Times

how Assyria conquered it (§§ 212-214). Chaldea also held
it (§ 234), and we finally found it in the power of Persia
(§ 263). When, therefore, the Hebrews originally took pos-
session of the land, thefe was little prospect that they would
ever long enjoy freedom from foreign oppression.

293. The

Hebrew
invasion of
Palestine
(about 1400-
1200 B.C.)

Section 28. The Settlement of the Hebrews in
Palestine and the United Hebrew Kingdom

• The Hebrews were all originally men of the Arabian desert,
wandering with their flocks and herds and slowly drifting over

,_, ,_ into their "final

home in Pales-
tine (read §§133-
141). For two
centuries (about
1400 to 1200
B.C.) their move-
ment from the
desert into Pal-
estine continued.
Another group of
their tribes had
been slaves in
Egypt, where they
had suffered much
hardship (Figs.
121 and 122)
under a cruel Pha-
raoh (Fig. 123).
They were successfully led out of Egypt by their heroic leader
Moses, a great national hero whose achievements they never
forgot. On entering Palestine the Hebrews found the Ca-
naanites (§ 141) already dwelling there in flourishing toWns
protected by massive walls (Figs. 124 and 125). The Hebrews

Fig. 122. Brick Storehouse Rooms
thought to have been built by he-
BREW Slaves in Egypt (Thirteenth
Century b.c.)

This storehouse is in the city of Pithom on
the east of the Nile Delta. It was built by
Ramses II, whose face we see in Fig. 123.
The making of the brick for such buildings
may be seen in Fig. 121

The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient 201

were able to capture only the weaker Canaanite towns (Fig. 1 2 6).
As the rough Hebrew shepherds looked across the highlands of
north Palestine they beheld their kindred scattered over far-
stretching hilltops, with the frowning walls of many a Canaanite
stronghold (Fig.
127) rising between
them. Even Jeru-
salem in the Judean
highlands (Fig. 127)
for centuries defied
the assaults of the
Hebrew invaders
(Fig. 126).

Let us remember
that these uncon-
quered Canaanite
towns now possessed
a civilization fifteen
hundred years old,
with comfortable
houses, government,
industries, trade, writ-
ing, and religion —
a civilization which
the rude Hebrew
shepherds were soon
adopting; for they
could not avoid inter-
course with the un-
subdued Canaanite

towns, as trade and business threw them together. This min-
gling with the Canaanites produced the most profound changes
in the life of the Hebrews. Most of them left their tents (head-
apiece, p. 100) and began to build houses like those of the Ca-
naanites (Fig. 125); they put off the rough sheepskin they had

294.

The

Hebrews
adopt
Canaanite
civilization
and acquire
Hittite type
of face

Fig. 1 23. Mummy of Ramses II, commonly

THOUGHT TO BE THE PhARAOH WHO EN-
SLAVED THE Hebrews

See § 125 for account of the preservation of
the bodies of the kings of Egypt. Ramses II
died about 1 225 b. c, that is, over thirty-one hun-
dred years ago. He was about ninety years old.
It v^ras probably he who treated the Hebrews
so cruelly, as told in Exodus v, 6-19 (§ 293)

202

Ancient Times

395. Differ-
ences in life
and customs
among the
Hebrews ;
antagonism
between
North and
South

worn in the desert, and they put on fine Canaanite raiment of
gayly colored woven wool (headpiece, p. 197). After a time, in
appearance, occupation, and manner of life the Hebrews were
not to be distinguished from the Canaanites among whom they
now lived. In short, they had adopted Canaanite civilization,
just as newly arrived immigrants among us soon adopt our
clothing and our ways. Indeed, as the Hebrews intermarried
with the Canaanites, they received enough Hittite blood to
acquire the Hittite type of face (Fig. 146).

These changes did not proceed everywhere at the same rate.
The Hebrews in the less fertile South were more attached to
the old desert life, so that many would not give up the tent

Fig. 1 24. The Long Mound of the Ancient City of Jericho

The walls of the city and the ruins of the houses (Fig. 125) are buried

under the rubbish which makes up this mound. Many of the ancient

cities of Palestine, as old as 2500 B.C., are now such mounds as this

296. Foun-
dation of the
Hebrew
nation ; Saul,
the first king

and the old freedom of the desert. The wandering life of the
nomad shepherd on the Judean hills could still be seen from
the walls of Jerusalem. Here, then, were two differing modes
of life among the Hebrews : in the fertile North of Palestine
we find the settled life of the town and its outlying fields ; in
the South, on the other hand, the wandering life of the nomad
still went on. For centuries this difference formed an impor
tant cause of discord among the Hebrews.

Fortunately for the Hebrews, Egypt was now in a state of
decline (iioo B.C.) (§ 124) and Assyria had not yet conquered
the West (§ 208). But a Mediterranean people called Philistines
(headpiece, p. 252, and § 379) had at this time migrated from
the island of Crete to the sea plain at the southwest comer of

The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient 203

Palestine (see map, p. 196). By 1 100 B.C. these Philistines formed
a highly civilized and warlike nation, or group of city-kingdoms.
Hard pressed by the Philistines, the Hebrew local leaders, or
judges, as they were called, found it hard to unite their people
into a nation. About a generation before the year 1000 B.C.,

Fig. 125. Ruins of the Houses of Ancient Jericho

Only the stone foundations of these houses are preserved. The walls
were of sun-baked brick, and the rains of over three thousand years have
washed them away; for these houses date from about 1500 B.C., and
in them lived the Canaanites, whom the Hebrews found in Palestine
(§ 293). Here we find the pottery jars, glass, and dishes of the house-
hold; also things carved of stone, like seals, amulets, and ornaments
of metal. The industries of these people were clearly learned from
Egypt (§ 291). Cuneiform tablets of clay found in these ruins show
the influence of Babylonian business (§§ 187, and 291)

however, a popular leader named Saul succeeded in gaining for
himself the office of king. The new king was a Southerner who
still loved the old nomad customs ; he 'had no fixed abode and
dwelt in a tent. In the fierce struggle to thrust back the Philis-
tines, Saul was disastrously defeated, and, seeing the rout of his
army, he fell upon his own sword and so died (about 1000 b.c.).

204

Ancient Times

297. David

(about 1000-
960 B.C.)

In a few years the
ability of David, one
of Saul's daring men
at arms whom he had
unjustly outlawed, won
the support of the
South. Seeing the im-
portance of possess-
ing a strong castle,
the sagacious David
selected the ancient
fortress on the steep
hill of Jerusalem (Fig.
127), hitherto held by
the Canaanites. He
therefore gained pos-
session of it and made
it his residence. Here
he ruled for a time
as king of the South,
till his valor as a sol-
dier and his victories
on all sides won him
Fig. 126. Letter of .(iVPTiAN also the support of

Governor of Jerusalem telling of ^y^^ ^^^^ prosperous
THE Invasion of Palestine by the ,, . ^, ^,.^.
TT ,T- ^ N North. The Philis-

Hebrews (Fourteenth Century b.c.)

tines were now beaten
The letter is a clay tablet written in Baby-
lonian cuneiform by the terrified Egyptian

governor, who begs the Pharaoh for help, saying : " The Khabiru
[Hebrews] are taking the cities of the king. No ruler remains to the
king, my lord ; all are lost." The king of Egypt to whom he wrote
thus was Ikhnaton, at a time when the Egyptian Empire in Asia was
falling to pieces (§ 122). This letter is one of a group of three hun-
dred such cuneiform letters found in one of the rooms of Ikhnaton's
palace at Tell el-Amarna (or Amarna), and called the Amarna Letters,
the oldest body of international correspondence in the world. We find
in them the earliest mention of the Hebrews (cf. Fig. 92 and see § 187)

The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orieiit 205

off, and David ruled over an extensive Hebrew kingdom. He
enjoyed a long and prosperous reign, and his people never forgot
his heroic deeds as a warrior nor his skill as a poet and singer.

Fig. 127. Glimpse of the Walls of Jerusalem from the
Low Valley below the Old Canaanite Fortress

The houses on the right of this valley belong to the modern village of
Siloam ; but on the left we see the high walls of Jerusalem where they
pass around the ancient place of the temple. Here above us at the left,
looking down several hundred feet into this valley, was the Canaanite
fortress captured by David (§ 297), but it long ago fell into ruin and
disappeared. The wall we see here is of a much later date. The Ca-
naanite fortress must have looked very much like the castle of David's
northern neighbor, the king of Samal (Fig. 97). (Drawn from photo-
graph by Underwood & Underwood)

David's son, Solomon, became, like Hammurapi, one of the
leading merchants of the East. He trafficked in horses and
launched a trading fleet in partnership with Hiram, the Phoenician

2o6 Ancient Times ^

298. Solo- king of Tyre. His wealth enabled him to marry a daughter
division of ^ ^^ the king of Egypt, and he delighted in oriental luxury and
his kingdom display. He removed the portable tent which the Hebrews had
930 B.C.) thus far used as a temple, and with the aid of his friend Hiram,

who loaned him skilled Phoenician workmen, he built a rich
temple of stone in Jerusalem (Fig. 127). Such splendor de-
manded a great income, and to secure it he weighed down
the Hebrews with heavy taxes. The resulting discontent of his
subjects was so great that, under Solomon's son, the Northern
tribes withdrew from the nation and set up a king of their
own. Thus the Hebrew nation was divided into two kingdoms
before it was a century old.

Section 29. The Two Hebrew Kingdoms

299. The There was much hard feeling between the two Hebrew king-
twee^thetwo doms, and sometimes fighting. Israel, as we call the Northern
k^^^J^s kingdoni, was rich and prosperous ; its market places were fiUfed

with industry and commerce ; its fertile fields produced plenti-
ful crops. Israel displayed the wealth and success of town
life. On the other hand, Judah, the Southern kingdom, was
poor; her land was meager (Fig. 128); besides Jerusalem she
had no large towns; many of the people still wandered with
their flocks.

300. The ' These two methods of life came into conflict in many ways,
contrastupon ^ut especially in religion. Every old Canaanite town had for
religion centuries its local town god, called its " baal," or " lord." The

Hebrew townsmen found it very natural to worship the gods
of their neighbors, the Canaanite townsmen. They were thus
unfaithful to their old Hebrew God Yahveh (or Jehovah).^ To
some devout Hebrews, therefore, and especially to those in the
South, the Canaanite gods seemed to be the protectors of the
wealthy class in the towns, with their luxury and injustice to

1 The Hebrews pronounced the name of their God « Yahveh," The pro-
nunciation " Jehovah " began less than six hundred years ago and was due to a
misunderstanding of the pronunciation of the word " Yahveh."

The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient 207

the poor, while Yahveh appeared as the guardian of the sim-
pler shepherd life of the desert, and therefore the protector of
the poor and needy.

There was growing reason for such beliefs. Less than a cen- 301. Elijah
tury after the separation of the two kingdoms, Ahab, a king of fe"nce^ofVhe
the North, had had Naboth, one of his subjects, killed in order older ideas

•' of Yahveh

to seize a vineyard belonging to Naboth, and thus to enlarge

Fig. 128. The Stony and Unproductive Fields of Judah

Judah is largely made up of sterile ridges like this in the background.
Note the scantiness of the growing grain in the foreground

his palace gardens. Reports of such wrongs stirred the anger
of Elijah, a Hebrew of old nomad habits, who lived in the
desert east of the Jordan. Still wearing his desert sheepskin,
he suddenly appeared before Ahab in the ill-gotten vineyard
and denounced the king for his seizure of it. Thus this un-
couth figure from the desert proclaimed war between Yahveh
and the injustice of town life. Elijah's followers finally slew not
only the entire Northern royal family, but also the priests of

208

Ancient Times

302. The

earliest

historical

writing

among the

Hebrews

(about

850 B.C.) ;

the Unknown

Historian

303. Amos,
and the
peaceful
methods of
reformer and
prophet
(750 B.C.)

the Canaanite gods (or baals). Such violent methods,* however,
could not accomplish lasting results. They were the methods
of Hebrews who thought of Yahveh only as a war god.

Besides such violent leaders as these, there were already
among the Hebrews more peaceable men, who also chafed
under the injustice of town life and turned fondly back to the
grand old days of their shepherd wanderings, out on the broad
reaches of the desert, where no man " ground the faces of the
poor." It was a gifted Hebrew of this kind who now put
together a simple narrative history of the Hebrew forefathers
— a glorified picture of their shepherd life. While his original
work has perished, much of it still survives in the immortal
tales of the Hebrew patriarchs, of Abraham and Isaac, of
Jacob and Joseph. These tales belong among the noblest liter-
ature which has survived to us from the past (see Gen. xxiv,
xxvii, xxyiii, xxxvii, xxxix-xlvii, 12). They are the earliest ex-
ample of historical writing in prose which we possess among
any people, and their nameless author, whom we may call the
Unknown Historian, is the earliest historian whom we have
found in the ancient world.^

Another century passed, and about 750 B.C. another dingy
figure in sheepskin appeared in the streets of Bethel, where the
Northern kingdom had an important temple. It was Amos, a
shepherd from the hills of Judah in the south. In the solitudes
of his shepherd life Amos had learned to see in Yahveh far
more than a war god of the desert. To him Yahveh seemed to
be a God of fatherly kindness, not demanding bloody butchery
like that practiced by Elijah's followers (§ 301), but neverthe-
less a God who rebuked the selfish and oppressive wealthy class
in the towns. The simple shepherd could not resist the inner
impulse to journey to the Northern kingdom and proclaim to
the luxurious townsmen there the evils of their manner of life.

1 Unfortunately the Hebrews themselves early lost all knowledge of his name
and identity, and finally associated the surviving fragments of his work with the
name of Moses.

The Hebrews and the Decline of the Ofient 209

We can imagine the surprise of the prosperous Northern
Hebrews as they suddenly met this rude shepherd figure clad
in sheepskin, standing at a street corner addressing a crowd
of townsmen. He was denouncing their showy clothes, fine
houses, beautiful furniture (Fig. 100), and above all their cor-
rupt lives and hard-heartedness toward the poor, whose lands
they seized for debt and whose labor they gained by enslaving
their fellow Hebrews. These things had been unknown in the
desert. By such addresses as these Amos, of course, endangered
his life, but he thus became the first social reformer in Asia.
We apply the term " prophet '' to such great Hebrew leaders
who pointed out the way toward unselfish living, brotherly
kindness, and a higher type of religion.

While all this had been going on the Hebrews had been
learning to write, as so many of their nomad predecessors
on the Fertile Crescent had done before them (§§ 167 and
201). They were now abandoning the clay tablet (Fig. 126),
and they wrote on papyrus with the Egyptian pen and ink
(Fig. 1 01). They borrowed their alphabet from the Phoeni-
cian and Aramaean merchants (§ 205). There is no doubt
that our earliest Hebrew historian's admiration for the nomad
life (§ 302), although the nomads were without writing, did
not prevent him from making use of this new and great con-
venience of town life — that is, writing. The rolls containing
the Unknown Historian's tales of the patriarchs, or bearing
the teachings of such men as Amos, were the first books
which the Hebrews produced — their* first literature. Such
rolls of papyrus were exactly like those which had been in use
in Egypt for over two thousand years. The discovery of the
household papers of a Hebrew community in Egypt has shown
us just how such a page of Hebrew or Aramaic writing looked
(Fig. 131). But literature remained the only art the Hebrews
possessed. They had no painting, sculpture, or architecture,
and if they needed these things they borrowed from their great
neighbors, Egypt, Phoenicia (§ 398), Damascus, or Assyria.

304. Amos
denounces
the corrupt
living of the
Northern
kingdom

305. The

Hebrews
leam to write

2IO

Ancient Times

306. De-
struction of
the Northern
kingdom
by Assyria
(722 B.C.)

307. Yahveh,
the God of
Palestine, in
conflict with
Assur, god
of Assyria

308. Isaiah
and the siege
of Jerusalem
by Sennach-
erib

Section 30. The Destruction of the Hebrew
Kingdoms by Assyria and Chaldea

While the Hebrews had been deeply stirred by their own
conflicts at home, such men as Amos had also perceived and
proclaimed the dangers coming from abroad, from beyond the
borders of Palestine, especially Assyria. Amos indeed announced
the coming destruction of the Northern kingdom by Assyria,
because of the evil lives of the people. As Amos had foreseen,
Assyria first swept away Damascus (§§ 208 and 212). The king-
dom of Israel, thus left exposed, was the next victim; and Samaria,
its capital, was captured by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. (§ 213).
Many of the unhappy Northern Hebrews were carried away as
captives, and the Northern nation, called Israel, was destroyed
after having existed for a little over two centuries.

The national hopes of the Hebrews were now centered in
the helpless little kingdom of Judah, which struggled on for
over a century and a quarter more, in the midst of a great
world conflict, in which Assyria was the unchallenged cham-
pion. Thus far thoughtful Hebrews had been accustomed to
think of their God as dwelling and ruling in Palestine only.
Did he have power also over the vast world arena where all
the great nations were fighting? But if so, was not Assur
(Fig. 102), the great god of victorious Assyria, stronger than
Yahveh, the God of the Hebrews.? And many a despairing
Hebrew, as he looked out over the hills of Palestine, wasted
by the armies, of Assyria (Fig. 129), felt in his heart that
Assur, the god of the Assyrians, must indeed be stronger than
Yahveh, God of the Hebrews.

It was in the midst of somber doubts like these, in the years
before 700 B.C., that the princely prophet Isaiah, in one great
oration after another, addressed the multitudes which filled the
streets of Jerusalem. The hosts of Sennacherib were at the
gates (Fig. 130), and the terrified throngs in the city were
expecting at any moment to hear the thunder of the great

The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient 211

Assyrian war engines (headpiece, p. 140) battering down the
crumbling walls of their city, as they had crushed the walls of
Damascus and Samaria. Then the bold words of the dauntless
Isaiah lifted them from despair like the triumphant call of a
trumpet. He told them that Yahveh ruled a kingdom far larger

Fig. 129. Hebrews paying Tribute to the King of Assyria

The Assyrian king, Shalmaneser III, stands at the left, followed by two
attendants. Before him hovers the winged sun-disk (§ 210 and Fig. 102).
His appearance in the middle of the ninth century B.C., campaigning in
the West against Damascus (§ 208), so frightened the Hebrews of the
Northern kingdom that their king (Jehu) sent gifts to the Assyrian king
by an envoy whom we see here bowing down at the king's feet. Behind
the Hebrew envoy are two Assyrian officers who are leading up a line of
thirteen Hebrews (not included here) bearing gifts of silver, gold, etc.
Although it was over a century before the Assyrian kings succeeded in
capturing Damascus (§§208, 212, and 213), this incident showed the
Hebrews what they might expect. The scene is carved on a black stone
shaft set up by the Assyrian king in his palace on the Tigris, where the
modern excavators found it.^ It is now in the British Museum

than Palestine — that He controlled the great world arena,
where He^ and not Assur, was the triumphant champion. If the
Assyrians had wasted and plundered Palestine, it was because
they were but the lash in the hands of Yahveh, who was using
them as a scourge to ptinish Judah for its wrongdoing. Isaiah
made this all clear to the people by vivid oriental illustrations,
calling Assyria the " rod " of Yahveh's anger, scourging the
Hebrews (Isa. x, 5-15).

212

Ancient Times

309. De-
struction of
Sennacherib's
army and
vindication
of Isaiah's
teaching

Fig. 130. Sennacherib, King of Assyria,
. receiving Captive Hebrews

The artist, endeavoring to sketch the stony
hills of southern Palestine, has made the sur-
face of the ground look like scales. We see the
Assyrian king seated on a throne, while ad-
vancing up the hill is a group of Assyrian
soldiers headed by the grand vizier, who stands
before the king, announcing the coming of the
Hebrew captives. At the left, behind the sol-
diers, appear three of the captives kneeling on
the ground and lifting up their hands to appeal
for mercy. The inscription over the vizier's
head reads, " Sennacherib, king of the world,
king of Assyria, seated himself upon a throne,
while the captives of Lachish passed before
him." Lachish was a small town of southern
Palestine. Sennacherib captured many such
Hebrew towns and carried off over two hun-
dred thousand captives ; but even his own rec-
ords make no claim that he captured Jerusalem
(cf. § 309). The scene is engraved on a large
slab of alabaster, which with many others
adorned the palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh

Thus while the
people were mo-
mentarily expecting
the destruction of
Jerusalem, Isaiah
undauntedly pro-
claimed a great and
glorious future for
the Hebrews and
speedy disaster for
the Assyrians. When
at length a pestilence
from the marshes
of the eastern Nile
Delta swept away
the army of Sen-
nacherib and saved
Jerusalem, it seemed
to the Hebrews the
destroying angel of
Yahveh who had
smitten the Assyrian
host (see 2 Kings
xix, 32-37). Some
of the Hebrews then
began to see that
they must think of
Yahveh as ruling a
larger world than
Palestine.

About a century
after the deliverance
from Sennacherib
they beheld and
rejoiced over the

The Hebrews and the Decline of the Ofient 213

destruction of Nineveh (606 b.c, § 231), and they fondly
hoped that the fall of Assyria meant final deliverance from
foreign oppression. But they had only exchanged one foreign
lord for another, and Chaldea followed Assyria in control of
Palestine (§ 233). Then their unwillingness to submit brought
upon the Hebrews of Judah the same fate which their kindred
of Israel had suffered (§ 306). In 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar,
the Chaldean king, destroyed Jerusalem and carried away the
people to exile in Babylonia. The Hebrew nation both North
and South was thus wiped out, after having existed about
four and a half centuries since the crowning of Saul.

Section 31. The Hebrews in Exile and their
Deliverance by the Persians

Some of the fugitives fled to Egypt. Among them was the 3ii- Je^e-
melancholy prophet Jeremiah, who had foreseen the coming temple of the
destruction of Jerusalem with its temple of Yahveh. He strove i„^E^t
to teach his people that each must regard his own heart as a
temple of Yahveh, which would endure long after His temple
in Jerusalem had crashed into ruin. • Recent excavation has
restored to us the actual papers of a colony of Hebrews in
Egypt at Elephantine (see map, p. 2>^y and Fig. 211). These
papers (Fig. 131) show that the exiled Hebrews in Egypt had
not yet reached Jeremiah's ideal of a temple of Yahveh in
every human heart ; for they had built a temple of their own,
in which they carried on the worship of Yahveh.

Similarly, the Hebrew exiles in Babylonia were not yet con- 312. Doubts

vinced of the truth of the teaching they had heard from their Hebrews in

great leaders the prophets. There were at first only grief and fn^d^hTgreat

unanswered questionings, of which the echo still reaches us : Unknown
^ ^ ^ Prophet of

By the rivers of Babylon,
There we sat down, yea we wept,
When we remembered Zion [Jerusalem].
Upon the willows in the midst thereof

214 Anciefit Times

We hanged up our harps.

How shall we sing Yahveh's song
In a strange land? (Psalms 137, 1-4)

Had they not left Yahveh behind in Palestine? And -then
arose an unknown voice ^ among the Hebrew exiles, and out
of centuries of affliction gave them the answer. In a series of
triumphant speeches this greatest of the Hebrews declared
Yahveh to be the creator and sole God of the universe. He
explained to his fellow exiles that suffering and affliction were
the best possible training and discipline to prepare a people
for service. He announced therefore that by afflicting them
Yahveh was only preparing His suffering people for service to
the world and that He would yet restore them and enable them
to fulfil a great mission to all men. He greeted the sudden rise
of Cyrus the Persian (§ 258) with joy. All kings, he taught,
were but instruments in the hands of Yahveh, who through
the Persians would overthrow the Chaldeans and return the
Hebrews to their land.

Thus had the Hebrew vision of Yahveh slowly grown from
the days of their nomad life, when they had seen him only as a
fierce tribal war god, having no power beyond the corner of the
desert where they lived, until now when they had come to see
that He was a kindly father and a righteous ruler of all the earth.
This was monotheism (§ 120), a belief which made Yahveh the
sole God. They had reached it only through a long development,
which brought them suffering and disaster — a discipline lasting
many centuries. Just as the individual to-day, especially a young
person, learns from his mistakes, and develops character as he
suffers for his own errors, so the suffering Hebrews had out-
grown many imperfect ideas. They thus illustrated the words
of the greatest of Hebrew teachers, " First the blade, then the

1 This unknown voice was that of a great poet-preacher, a prophet of the exile,
whose name has been lost. But his addresses to his fellow exiles are preserved
in sixteen chapters imbedded in the Old Testament book now bearing the name
of Isaiah (chaps, xl-lv, inclusive). We may call him the Unknown Prophet

(AW t._ *v/\ wA,Hv', 'a^'h'* >^ !*)« )ji*'r'^'' )^^''» "^^^ 1^ ?^y *» ;?' '•\*^ H*v ''j^i

>5^»

^^l-ii?

Jjr Tl *"!

FlOr. ijl. AKAiViAic i.h.iih.R VVRIiiEN Bi A HEBREW COMMUNITY

IN Egypt to the Persian Governor of Palestine in the
Fifth Century b.c.

This remarkable letter was discovered in 1907, with many other similar
papers, lying in the ruins of the town of Elephantine (Fig. 211) in Upper
Egypt. Here lived a community of some six or seven hundred Hebrews,
some of whom had probably migrated to Egypt before Nebuchadnezzar
destroyed Jerusalem (§ 310). They had built a temple to Yahveh
(Jehovah) on the banks of the Nile. This letter tells how the jealous
Egyptian priests formed a mob, burned the Hebrew temple, and plun-
dered it of its gold and silver vessels. Thereupon the whole Hebrew
community sat down in mourning, and for three years they tried in vain
to secure permission to rebuild. Then in 407 B.C. their leaders wrote
this letter to Bagoas, the Persian governor of Palestine, begging him to
use his influence with the Persian governor of Egypt, to permit them
to rebuild their ruined temple. They refer by name to persons in
Palestine who are also mentioned in the Old Testament. The letter is
written with pen and ink on papyrus, in the Aramaic language (§ 205
and Fig. loi), which was now rapidly displacing Hebrew (§ 207). This
writing used the Phoenician letters long before adopted throughout
Western Asia (§ 205). This beautifully written sheet of papyrus, about
10 by 13 inches, bearing the same letters which the Hebrews used
(§ 305)» shows us exactly how a page of their ancient writings in the
Old Testament looked. They read the stories of Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, and Joseph (§ 305) from pages like this
215

2l6

Ancient Times

ear, then the full grain in the ear." ^ By this rich and wonder-
ful experience of the Hebrews in religious progress, the whole
world was yet to profit.

When the victorious Cyrus entered Babylon (§ 261) the
Hebrew exiles there greeted . him as their deliverer. His
the

triumph gave the Hebrews a Persian ruler. With great
humanity the Persian kings allowed the exiles to return to
their native land. Some had prospered in Babylonia and did
not care to return. But at different times enough of them went
back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city on a very modest scale
and to restore the temple.

The authority given by the Persian government to the
returned Hebrew leaders enabled them to issue a code of
religious law,^ much of which had come down from earlier
days. The religion thus organized by the returned Hebrew
leaders, we now call Judaism, the religion of the Jews. Under
it the old Hebrew kingship was not revived. In its place a
High Priest at Jerusalem became the ruler of the Jews. The
Jewish state was thus a religious organization, a church with a
priest at its head.

The leaders of this church devoted themselves to the study of
the ancient writings of their race still surviving in their hands.
Many of the old writings had been lost. They arranged and
copied the orations and addresses of the prophets, the tales
of the Unknown Historian (§ 302), and all the old Hebrew
writings they possessed. As time went on, the service of the
restored temple required songs, and they produced a remark-
able book of a hundred and fifty religious songs, the hymn
book of the second temple, known to us as the Book of
Psalms. For a long time, indeed for centuries, these various
Hebrew books, like the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, and
others, circulated in separate rolls, and it did not occur to
anyone to put them together to form one book.

1 The words of Jesus ; see Mark iv, 28.

2 It consisted of the first five books of the Bible.

The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient 217

It was not until Christian times that the Jewish leaders put 317. The
all these old writings of their fathers together to form one mentand"
book. Printed in Hebrew, as they were originally written, [JJ'^^gg^g^
they form the Bible of the Jews at the present day. These religion
Hebrew writings have also become a sacred book of the
Christian natrons. When translated into English, it is called
the Old Testament. It forms to-day the most precious legacy
which we have inherited from the older Orient before the
coming of Christ (§ 1067). It tells the story of how a rude
shepherd folk issued from the wilds of the Arabian desert, to
live in Palestine and to go through experiences there which
made them the religious teachers of the civilized world. And
we should further remember, that, crowning all their history,
there came forth from them in due time the founder of the
Christian religion (§ 1067). One of the most important things
that we owe to the Persians, therefore, was their restoration
of the Hebrews to Palestine. The Persians thus saved and
aided in transmitting to us the great legacy from Hebrew life
which we have in the Old Testament, and in the life of the
Founder of Christianity.

Section 32. Decline of Oriental Leadership;
Estimate of Oriental Civilization

Persia was the last of the g^reat oriental power§.„and, as its
decline contjoiiefLaf ter 400 b.c, it gax£.way_to__the_^ Greeks,
another Indo-European people who arose not in Asia but in
Europe, to which we must now go. Before we do so, however,
let us look back over oriental civilization for a moment and
review what it accomplished in over thirty-five hundred years.
We recall how it passed from the discovery of metal and the
invention of writing, through three great chapters of history
on the Nile (about 3000 to 1150 B.C.), and three more on
the Two Rivers (thirty-first century to 539 B.C.). When the
six great chapters were ended, the East finally fell under the

21 8 Ancient Times

rule of the incoming Indo-Europeans, led by the Persians
(from 539 b.c. on).

319. The What did the Ancient Orient really accomplish for the human
of thTorilnt^ race in the course of this long career ? It gave the world the
inventions f^^st highly developed practical arts, like metal work, weaving,

glassmaking, paper-making, and many other similar industries.
To distribute the products of these industries among other
peoples and carry on commerce, it built the earliest seagoing
ships. It first was able to move great weights and undertake
large building enterprises — large even for us of to-day. The
early Orient therefore brought forth a ^reat group of inventions
surpassed in importance only by those of the modern world.

320. The The Orient also gave us the earliest architecture in stone
ofthTorient: masonry, the colonnade, the arch, and the tower or spire. It
earliest produced the earliest refined sculpture, from the wonderful

architecture, ^ ^ '

sculpture, portrait figures and colossal statues of Egypt to the exquisite
literature, seals of early Babylonia. It gave us writing and the earliest
science'^' alphabet. In literature it brought forth the earliest known
government ^^Ics in narrative prose, poems, historical works, social dis-
cussions, and even a drama. It gave us the calendar we still
use. It made a beginning in mathematics, astronomy, and
medicine. It first produced government on a large scale,
whether of a single great nation or of an empire made up
of a group of nations. ,

321. The Finally, in religion the East developed the earliest belief in
ofthe^Orient: 2. sole God and his fatherly care for all men, and it laid the
religion foundations of a religious life from which came forth the

founder of the leading religion of the civilized world to-day.
For these things, accomplished — most of them — while Europe
was still undeveloped, our debt to the Orient is enormous.

Let us see, however, if there were not some important
things which the East had not yet gained. The East had
always accepted as a matter of course the rule of a king,
and believed that his rule should be kindly and just. It had
never occurred to anyone there, that the people should have

The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orie?it 219

a voice in the government, and something to say about how 322. Lack

they should be governed. No one had ever gained the idea of freSomJ^

a free citizen, a man feeling what we call patriotism, and under ^Qj^^nment

obligations to vote and to share in the government. Liberty as and citizen-
, , . , , , , r 1 1 ship in the

we understand it was unknown, and the rule of the people. Ancient

which we call " democracy," was never dreamed of in the "^"'
Orient. Hence the life of the individual man lacked the
stimulating responsibilities which come with citizenship. Such
responsibilities, — like that of thinking about public questions
and then voting, or of serving' as a soldier to defend the
nation, — these duties quicken the mind and force men to
action, and they were among the strongest influences in pro-
ducing great men in Greece and Rome.

Just as the Orientals accepted the rule of kings without
question, so they accepted the rule of the gods. It was a
I tradition which they and their fathers had always accepted.

; This limited their ideas of the world about them. They thought Ancient

that every storm was due to the interference of some god, and

: that every eclipse must be the angry act of a god or demon.

I Hence the Orientals made little inquiry into the natural causes

\ of such things. In general, then, they suffered from a lack of

• freedom of the mind — a kind of intellectual bondage to religion

and to old ideas.^ Under these circumstances natural science

could not go very far, and religion was much darkened by

superstition, while art and literature lacked some of their

greatest sources of stimulus and inspiration.

There were, therefore, still boundless things for mankind 324. Limita-

1 . •Ill 1 ^ ^ ^ • tions caused

to do m government, m thought about the natural world, m by lack of
Wk gaining deeper views of the wonders and beauties of nature, fntellectual

H as well as in art, in literature, and in many other lines. This freedom;
^■1 •' transition

^B future progress was to be made in Europe — that Europe to Europe

I '

1 Intellectual freedom from tradition was earliest shown by the great Egyp-
tian king Ikhnaton (§§ 1 18-120) and by the Hebrew prophets (§ 304). Perhaps
we could also include Zoroaster; but complete intellectual freedom was first
attained by the Greeks.

220 Ancient Times

which we left at the end of our first chapter in the Late Stone
Age. To Europe, therefore, we must now turn, to follow across
the eastern Mediterranean the course of rising civilization, as
it passed from the Orient to our forefathers in early Europe
four to five thousand years ago.

QUESTIONS

Section 27. Describe the situation and character of the land
of the Hebrews. What can you say about the character of its
civilization.? Was it likely to offer a tranquil home.? Why?

Section 28. Where was the original home of the Hebrews?
Where did some of them suffer bondage? What was the result of
their living among the Canaanites ? Did all the Hebrews adopt the
settled life? When did they gain their first king and who was he?
Who was their leading enemy? Describe the reign of David; of
Solomon. What happened to the kingdom after Solomon?

Section 29. What were the relations between the two Hebrew
kingdoms? Contrast the two kingdoms. How did this contrast
affect religion? What work did Elijah do? Were there more peace-
ful men of similar opinions? What can you say of the Unknown
Historian? Tell the story of Amos. What was the work of a
prophet? Whence did the Hebrews learn to write and what were
their first books ?

Section 30. What danger threatened the Hebrews from abroad?
What happened to the Northern kingdom? Did the Hebrews be-
lieve Yahveh to be stronger than Assur? What can you say of the
work of Isaiah ? Tell about Sennacherib's campaign against Jerusa-
lem. Describe the destruction of the Southern kingdom.

Section 31. What became of the Hebrews of Judah? What
did they think about Yahveh? Who taught them better and what
was his teaching ? Did the Hebrews reach their highest ideas about
Yahveh all at once or were such ideas a gradual growth ? What did
the returned Hebrews accomplish and by what authority ?

Section 32. What were the most important things which the
Orient contributed to human life? Did the people there ever have
any voice in government ? Were there any citizens ? What was the
attitude of the Orientals toward the gods ? What was the effect upon
science ? To what region do we now follow the story of early man ?

PART III. THE GREEKS

CHAPTER VIII

THE DAWN OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION AND THE RISE
OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN WORLD

Section 33. The Dawn of Civilization in Europe

We have already studied the life of earliest man in Europe, 325. Late
where we followed his progress step by step through some fifty E^uJJle f nj
thousand years (Sections 1-4). At that point we were obliged ^^^ future
to leave him and to pass over from Europe to the Orient, to
watch there the birth and growth of civilization, while all Europe
remained in the barbarism of the Late Stone Age. Meantime

Note. The above drawing shows us the upper part of a stone vase carved
by a Cretan sculptor. The lower part is lost. The scene depicts a procession of
Cretan peasants with wooden pitchforks over their shoulders. Among them is a
chorus of youths with wide-open mouths, lustily singing a harvest song, doubtless
in honor of the great Earth Mother (§ 357), to whom the peasants believed
-they owed the fertility of the earth. The music is led by a priest with head
shaven after the Egyptian manner, and he carries upraised before his face a ■
sistrum, a musical rattle which came from Egypt, The work is so wonderfully
carved that we seem to feel the forward motion of the procession.

221

222

Aftcieut Times

326. The

wares dis-
tributed in
Late Stone
Age Europe
by traders
from the
Mediter-
ranean

327. The
oriental
source of the
European
trader's wares

328. Europe
hears of the
earliest ships
in the far-
away Nile

the towns and villages of the Late Stone Age men had stretched
far across Europe. The smoke of their settlements rose through
the forests and high over the lakes and valleys of Switzerland.
Their roofs dotted the plains and nestled in the inlets of the
sea, whence they were thickly strewn far up the winding val-
leys of the rivers into inner Europe. In southeastern Europe
these men had finally reached the dawn of the Age of Metal,
about three thousand years before Christ.-^

The occasional visits of the traders from the coast settle-
ments along the Mediterranean were welcome events. Such
a trader's wares were eagerly inspected. Some bargained with
him for a few decorated jars of pottery, while others pre-
ferred glittering blue-glaze beads. Great was the interest,
too, when the trader exhibited a few shining beads or neck
rings of a strange, heavy, gleaming, reddish substance, so
beautiful that the villagers trafficked eagerly for them. Most
desired of all, however, was the dagger (Fig. 132) or ax head
made of the same unknown substance. Such ax heads, though
they were much thinner, did not break like stone axes, and
they could be ground to a better edge than the ground stone
ax ever gained.

To the communities of inner Europe, the trader brought also
vague rumors of the lands from which his wares had come,
of great peoples who dwelt beyond the wide waters of the
Mediterranean Sea. Whereupon some of the Late Stone Age
villagers of Europe perhaps recalled a dim tradition of their
fathers that grain and flax, and even cattle and sheep, first
came to them from the same wonderlands of the Far East.

With rapt attention and awe-struck faces they listened to the
trader's tales, telling of huge ships (Fig. 41) which made the
rude European dugouts (Fig. 14) look like tiny chips. They

1 As we shall see, the Stone Age was only very gradually succeeded by the
Copper or Bronze Age. Metal reached southeastern Europe not long after
3000 B.C., but in western and northern Europe it was almost 2000 B.C. before
Ac beginning of the Copper Age, which soon became the Bronze Age.

The Dawn of European Civilization

223

had many oarsmen on each side, and mighty fir trunks were
mounted upright in the craft, carrying huge sheets of linen to
catch the favoring wind, which thus drove them swiftly from
land to land. They came out of the many mouths of the vast
river of Egypt, greater than any river in the world, said the
trader, and they bore heavy cargoes across the Mediterranean

Jura Mountains

Denmark

Fig. 132. Series of Four Dagger Blades of Copper and
Bronze, showing Influence from Egypt to Denmark

The lost handles were of wood, bone, or ivory, and the rivet holes for
fastening them can still be seen. We see in this series how the early
Egyptian form {A) passed from Egypt across Europe to the Scandina-
vian countries. The later swords of western Europe were simply the
old Egyptian dagger elongated

to the islands and coasts of southeastern Europe or neighbor-
ing Asia. Thus at the dawn of history, barbarian Europe
looked across the Mediterranean to the great civilization of
the Nile, as our own North American Indians fixed their
wondering eyes on the first Europeans who landed in America,
and listened to like strange tales of great and distant peoples.
Slowly Europe learned the use of metal (Fig. 133 and p. 222,
footnote). In spite of much progress in craftsmanship and a

224 Ancient Times

329. Back- more civilized life in general, the possession of metal did not

STe continent enable the peoples of Europe to advance to a high type of

of Europe civilization. They still remained without writing, without archi-
after receiv- ■' *^'

ing metal tccture in hcwn-stone masonry, and without large sailing ships

2ooo^.c.) for commerce.-^ The failure to make progress in architecture

beyond such rough stone structures as Stonehenge (Pig. 20)

Fig. 133. Chariot made by the Mechanics of Bronze Age

Europe

This chariot shows us what good woodwork the Bronze Age craftsmen
could do with bronze tools. It is also an evidence of the far-reaching
commerce of the Bronze Age; for it was transported across the
Mediterranean to Egypt, where it was placed in a cliff-tomb, to be
used by some wealthy Egyptian after death. There it has survived in
perfect condition to our day. It is built of elm and ash, with bindings
of birch fiber. The birch does not grow south of the Mediterranean,
and hence the chariot must have been made on the north of the
Mediterranean (§ 329)

is an illustration of this backwardness of western and northern
Europe. It clearly proves the failure of Bronze Age Europe
to bring forth a high civilization, such as we have found in
the Orient. It was naturally in that portion of Europe nearest
Egypt that civilization developed most rapidly ; namely, around
the ^gean Sea.

1 In this matter the Norsemen were the leaders in northern Europe, and
seem to have developed considerable skill in navigation by 1500 B.c,

The Dawn of European Civilization 225

Section 34. The ^gean World : the Islands

The ^gean Sea is like a large lake, almost completely en- 330. The
circled by the surrounding lands (see map, p. 252). Around its gnd^the ^^
west and north sides stretches the mainland of Europe, on the ^gean world
east is Asia Minor, while the long Island of Crete on the south
lies like a breakwater, shutting off the Mediterranean from the
yEgean Sea. From north to south this sea is at no point more
than four hundred miles in length, while its width varies greatly.
It is a good deal longer than Lake Michigan, and in places
over twice as wide. Its coast is deeply indented with many
bays and harbors, and it is so thickly sprinkled with hundreds
of islands that it is often possible to sail from one island to
another in an hour Or two. Indeed it is almost impossible to
cross the ^gean without seeing land all the way, and in a
number of directions at the same time. Just as Chicago, Mil-
waukee, and other towns around Lake Michigan are linked
together by modern steamboats, so we shall see incoming civi-
lization connecting the shores of the ^gean by sailing ships.
This sea, therefore, with its islands and the fringe of shores
around it, formed a region by itself, which we may call the
^gean world.

It enjoys a mild and sunny climate ; for this region of the 331. climate
Mediterranean lies in the belt of rainy winters and dry summers, of the'^gean
Here and there, along the bold and broken, but picturesque and ^^'"^'^
beautiful, shores (Plate III, p. 276), river valleys and small
plains descend to the water's edge. Here wheat and barley,
grapes and olives, may be cultivated without irrigation. Hence
bread, wine, and oil were the chief food, as among most Medi-
terranean peoples to this day. Wine is their tea and coffee, and
oil is their butter. So in the Homeric poems (§§408-411)
bread and wine are spoken of as the food of all, even of the
children. The wet season clothes the uplands with rich green
pastures, where the shepherds may feed the flocks which dot
the hillsides far and near. Few regions of the world are

226

Ancient Times

352. The

^gean world
and its near-
ness to the
Orient

333. The

iEgean
Islands out-
posts of the
Orient; prog-
ress of these
islands and
backwardness
of the main-
land

334. The
people of the
^gean world

better suited to be the home of happy and prosperous com-
munities, grateful to the gods for all their plentiful gifts by
land and sea.

A map of the Mediterranean (p. 676) shows us that the
^gean world is the region where Europe thrusts forward its
southernmost and easternmost peninsula (Greece), with its island
outposts, especially Crete, reaching far out into the oriental
waters so early crossed 'and recrossed by Egyptian ships
(§ 77). The map thus shows us why the earliest high civi-
lization on the north side of the Mediterranean appeared on
the Island of Crete. At the same time we should notice that
the ^gean world is touched by Asia, which here throws out
its westernmost heights (Asia Minor), so that Asia and Europe
face each other across the waters of the ^gean. Asia Minor
with its trade routes was a link which connected the ^gean
world with the Fertile Crescent.

We see here, then, that the older oriental civilizations con-
verged upon the ^gean by two routes: first and earliest by
ship across the Mediterranean from Egypt; second by land
through Asia Minor from the Euphrates world. Thus the
^gean islands became a bridge connecting the Orient and
Europe. Already in the Late Stone Age the ^gean islands
had unavoidably become outposts of the great oriental civili-
zations which we have found so early on the Nile and the
Euphrates. It was on the ^gean islands and not on the
mainland of Europe that the earliest high civilization on
the north side of the Mediterranean grew up.

We call the earliest inhabitants of the ^gean world ^geans.
They were inhabiting this region when civilization dawned there
(about 3000 B.C.), and they continued to live there for many
centuries before the race known to us as the Greeks entered
the region. These ^Egeans, the predecessors of the Greeks
in the northern Mediterranean, belonged to a great and gifted
white race having no connection with the Greeks. They were,
and their descendants still are, widely extended along the

The Dawn of European Civilization 227

northern shores of the Mediterranean.^ We call them the
Mediterranean race, but their origin and their relationships
with other peoples are as yet little understood. At a time far
earlier than any of our written records, they had occupied not
only the mainland of Greece and the islands of the ^Egean, but
they had also settled on the neighboring shores of Asia Minor.

From the beginning the leader in this island civilization of 335. Crete
the ^geans was Crete. This large island lies so far out in the tween the '
Mediterranean that one is almost in doubt whether it belongs ^^^ne^^
to Europe or. to Africa (see map, p. 252). At the dawn of
civilization " Crete was as much a part of the East ... as
Constantinople is to-day." ^ Even in ancient ships the mariners
issuing from the mouths of the Nile and steering northwest-
ward would sight the Cretan mountains in a few days. Thus
Crete was the link between Egypt on the south and the ^gean
Sea on the north (see map, p. 252).

The little sun-dried-brick villages, forming the Late Stone 336. Rise of
Age settlements of Crete, received copper from the ships of the zadon^under
Nile by 3000 B.C., as we have seen (§ 326). Somewhat later Egyptian

■' ^ _ \ v^ / influence

the Cretan metal workers received, probably from mines in the (3000-
northern Mediterranean, supplies of copper mixed with tin,
giving them the hard mixture we call bronze, which is much
harder than copper. Thus began the Bronze Age in Crete
after 3000 b.c. For a thousand years afterward their progress
was slow, but it gained for them some very important things.
While the great pyramids of Egypt were being built, the Cretan
craftsmen learned from their Egyptian neighbors the use of the
potter's wheel and the closed oven (Fig. 48). They could then
shape and bake much finer clay jars and vases. By copying
Egyptian stone vessels they learned also to hollow out hard
varieties of stone and to make beautifully wrought stone vases,
bowls, and jars (Fig. 134). For some time the Cretans had been

1 It has been thought that this race had its home in North Africa and that
they spread entirely around the Mediterranean. The Egyptians and Semites
may be branches of it. 2 Burrows, The Discoveries in Crete.

228

Ancient Times

337. Rise of
the sea-kings
of Crete

(2000 B.C.)

employing rude picture records like Figs. 26 and 32. Under
the influence of -Egypt these picture signs now gradually de-
veloped into real phonetic writing (Figs. 135 and 137), the
earliest writing in the ^gean world (about 2000 B.C.).

By 2000 B.C. the Cretans had become a highly civilized
people. Near the coast, for convenient access to ships, were

Egypt Crete

Fig. 134. Early Stone Vases of Crete and the Egyptian
Originals from which they were copied

The earlier vases from Egypt (on the left) compared with those of Crete

(on the right) show that the Cretan craftsmen copied the Egyptian forms

(§336) in the latter part of the Pyramid Age (about 2700-2600 B.C.)

the manufacturing towns, with thriving industries in pottery
and metal work, enabling them to trade with other peoples.
Farther inland the green valleys of the island must have been
filled with prosperous villages cultivating their fields of grain and
pasturing their flocks. At Cnossus, not far from the middle of
the northern coast (see map, p. 252), there grew up a kingdom
which may finally have included a large part of the island. The

The Dawn of European Civilization

229

Late Stone Age town at Cnossus had long since fallen to ruin
and been forgotten. Over a deep layer of its rubbish a line of
splendid Cretan kings now built a fine palace arranged in the
Egyptian manner, with a large cluster of rooms around a central
court. Farther inland toward the south shore arose another
palace at Phaestus, perhaps another residence of the same
royal family, or the capital of a second kingdom.

Egyptian

Cretan

Egyptian

Cretan

Sign of Life

Palace Tower

Libation Vase Bronze Adze

Fig. 135. Cretan Hieroglyphs and the Egyptian Signs

FROM WHICH THEY WERE TAKEN. (AfTER SiR ArTHUR EvANS)

These examples show us in the first column the Egyptian originals

from which the Cretan hieroglyphic signs shown in the second column

were taken (see § 336)

These palaces were not fortified castles, for neither they nor
the towns connected with them possessed any protecting walls.
But the Cretan kings were not without means of defense. They
already had their palace armories, where brazen armor and
weapons were stored. Hundreds of bronze arrowheads, with
the charred shafts of the arrows, along with written lists of
weapons and armor and chariots, have been found still lying in
the ruins of the armory rooms in the palace at Cnossus (§ 340).
The troops who used these weapons were of course not lacking.
Moreover, the Cretan kings were also learning to use ships in

338. Power

of the sea-
kings of
Crete

230

Ancient Times

warfare, and it has become a modem habit to call them the
" sea-kings of Ci;iete," ^

Cretan industries henceforth flourished as never before. The
potters of Cnossus began to produce exquisite cups as thin and
delicate as modem porcelain teacups. These and their pottery
jars and vases they painted in bright colors with decorative de-
signs, which made them the most beautiful ware to be had in
the East (Fig. 136, A). Such ware was in demand in the houses
of the rich as far away as the Nile, just as fine French table
porcelain is widely sold outside of France at the present day.
The new many-colored Cretan vases were so highly prized by
the Egyptian nobles of the Feudal Age that they even placed
them in their tombs for use in the next world. In these Egyp-
tian tombs modern excavators have recovered them, to tell us
the story of the wide popularity of Cretan industrial art in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries b. c. Egyptian ships, common
in the eastern Mediterranean since the thirtieth century B.C.,
must have been frequent visitors in the Cretan harbors. At
the same time the prevailing north wind of summer easily car-
ried the galleys which the Cretans had leamed to build, across
to the mouths of the Nile. There were many things in Egypt
which the Cretans needed. Hence commerce between Crete
and the Nile was constant (see map, p. 252).

Cretan business now required much greater speed and con-
venience in writing than was possible in using the old picture
signs (Fig. 135). These pictures were therefore much abbre-
viated and reduced to simpler forms, each picture consisting of
only a few lines. This more rapid hand, called linear writing
(Fig. 137), was scratched on clay tablets. The chests of arms
and weapons in the palace armory had each a clay-tablet label
hanging in front of it. Great numbers of clay tablets stored in

1 The sea power of the Cretans has been much exaggerated by recent writers.
One of the old Cretan sea kings, according to later tradition, was named Minos.
For this reason early Cretan civilization has been called Minoan, and this is now
the most common term applied to it. We use the term " iEgean " ; for the term
" Mycenaean," see § 347.

A B

Fig. 136. Two Cretan Vases showing Progress in the Art

OF Decoration

The first vase {A) is an example of the earlier pottery, painted on a
dark background with rich designs in " white, orange, crimson, red and
yellow." The potters who made such vases were, together with the
seal-cutters, the first really gifted decorative artists to arise in Crete.
They flourished from 2000 B.C. onward, in the days of the first palace
of Cnossus (§ 337). We should notice that their designs do not picture
carefully anything in nature, like flowers or animals (even though a
hint of a lotus flower appears in the angle of the spiral) ; but the fig-
ures are almost purely imaginative and drawn from Egyptian art. The
second vase (B), however (some five hundred years later than the first),
shows how the artists of the Grand Age had learned from Egyptian
decorative art to take their decorative figures from the natural world,
for we see that the design consists chiefly of Egyptian lotus flowers
(§ 341). Such designs were no longer in many colors; on this jar^
indeed, they are molded in relief. This jar {B) is nearly 4 feet high
and much larger then the first, exam pie [A). Stone and metal vases
of the Grand Age were sometimes superbly decorated with carved
bands of human figures in action. See the fine examples of this style
in Fig. 140, and the headpiece, p. 221
231

232

Ancient Times

341. The
Grand Age
in Crete and
its art (1600-
1500 B.C.)

chests seem to have contained the records, invoices, and book-
keeping lists necessary in conducting the affairs of a large royal
household. Masses of these have been found covered by the
rubbish and ruins of the fallen palace. In spite of much study,
scholars are not yet. able to read these precious records, the
earliest-known writing on the borders of the European world.

The Cretan kings, how-
ever, did not erect
large stone monuments
engraved with written
records of their build-
ings, their victories, and
their great deeds, like
those we have found in
the Orient.

A few centuries of
such development as
this carried Cretan civ-
ilization to its highest
level, and the Cretans
entered upon what we
may call their Grand
Age (1600-1500 B.C.).
As the older palace of
Cnossus gave way to a
larger and more splen-
did building (Fig. 138),
the life of Crete began
to unfold in all directions. The new palace itself, with its colon-
naded hall, its fine stairways (Fig. 138), and its impressive open
areas, represented the first real architecture in the northern
Mediterranean. The palace walls were painted with fresh and
beautiful scenes from daily life, all aquiver with movement and
action ; or by learning the Egyptian art of glassmaking the Cre-
tans adorned them with glazed figures attached to the surface

Fig. 137. Clay Tablet bearing a
Record in the Rapid Cretan Hand-
writing OFTEN CALLED LiNEAR

This writing is a later stage of the hiero-
glyphs in Fig. 135 (see also § 340)

The Dawn of European Civilization

233

of the wall. The pottery painters had by this time given up the
use of many colors. They now employed one dark tone on a
light background, or they modeled the design in relief. Noble
vases (Fig. 136, B) were painted in grand designs drawn from
plant life or often from the life of the sea, where the Cretans
were now more and more at home. This wonderful pottery
shows the most
powerful, vigor-
ous, and impres-
sive decorative art
of the early orien-
tal world. Indeed,
it belongs among
the finest works
of decorative art
ever produced by
any people.

The method of
use and the execu-
tion of the work
everywhere show
that this art was
developing under
suggestion from
Egypt; for exam-
ple, walls covered
with colored glazed
tiles were in use
in Egypt nearly two thousand years earlier than in Crete. But
in spite of this fact the Cretan artist did not follow slavishly
the Egyptian model. A growing plant painted on an Egyp-
tian wall seems sometimes so rigid and stiff that it looks as if
done with a stencil. The Cretan artist drew the same plant
with such free and splendidly curving lines (Fig. 136, ^) that
we seem to hear the wind swaying th^ ^JteRiS and giving us

Fig. 138. Colonnaded Hall and Stair-
case IN THE Cretan Palace of the
Grand Age at Cnossus

The columns and roof of the hall are modern
restorations. This hall is in the lower portion
of the palace, and the stairway, concealed by
the balustrade at the back of the hall, led up by
five flights of fifty-two massive steps to the
main floor of the palace. On the painted inte-
rior decoration of this palace consult § 341 and
see Fig. 139

342. Inde-
pendence
and power
of Cretan
artists in spite
of Egyptian
influence

234

Ancient Times

343- The
life of the
Cretans in
the Grand
Age : the
common folk

" The soft eye-music of slow-moving boughs " (Wordsworth).
The Cretan sculptor in ivory, too, as well as the goldsmith and
worker in bronze wrought masterpieces which remain to-day
among the world's greatest works of art (Figs. 140 and 141).
The palace of Cnossus looked out upon a town of plain,
sun-dried-brick houses. Here must have lived the merchants and
traders, the potters, metal workers, painters, and other crafts-
men, though many of these also lived and worked in the palace

Fig. 139. Cretan Lords and Ladies of the Grand Age on
THE Terraces of the Palace at Cnossus. (After Durm)

This scene was painted on the walls of the palace as part of the interior
wall decoration. It has been somewhat restored, as shown above, but it
forms a remarkable example of the Cretan artist's ability to produce
the impression of an animated multitude of people seen from a distance
and blending into a somewhat confused whole (see also § 341)

344. The

nobles about
the king

itself ; while on the outskirts, or up the valley, dwelt the peas-
ants who cultivated the fields. On one occasion we see the
peasants marching in joyous procession, probably celebrating a
harvest festival (headpiece, p. 221).

Upon such celebrations of the people there looked down
from the palace a company of lords and ladies, who lived an
astonishingly free and modem life. The ladies, wearing cos-
tumes (Fig. 141) which might tastefully appear in the streets of
modern New York or Chicago, crowded the palace terraces and
watched their champions struggling in fierce boxing matches, in
which the contestants wore heavy metal helmets (Fig. 139).

Fig. 140. Wild Bulls pictured by a Cretan Goldsmith
AROUND Two Golden Cups

These cups were found at Vaphio, near Sparta, whither they were im-
ported from Crete. The goldsmith beat out these marvelous designs
with a hammer and punch over a mold, and then cut in finer details
with a graving tool. His work must be ranked among the greatest
works of art produced by any people

^^■iW'ii-':"

^^Htajjfcij^^p^''^ V* • <'^^^^^H

Fig. 141. Ivory and Gold Statuette of a Cretan Lady
OF the Grand Age. (Boston Museum of Fine Arts)

The proud little figure stands with shoulders thrown far back and arms
extended, each hand grasping a golden serpent, which coils about her
arms to the elbow. She wears a high tiara perched daintily on her
elaborately curled hair. Her dress consists of a flounced skirt and a
tight bodice tapering to her slender waist. The whole forms a costume
so surprisingly modern that this little Cretan lady would hardly create
any comment if she appeared so dressed on one of our crowded city
streets of to-day. The figure is carved in ivory, while the flounces are
edged with bands of gold and the belt about the waist is of the same
metal. She represents either the great Cretan mother goddess or pos-
sibly only a graceful snake-charmer of the court. In any case the
sculptor has given her the appearance of one of the noble ladies of his
time. Even the Greek sculptor never surpassed the vitality and the
winsome charm which passed from the fingers of the ancient Cretan
artist into this tiny figure

The Dawn of European Civilization

235

Or the assembled court (Fig. 139) cheered the plucky bull-
fighters tossed on the horns of huge wild bulls (Fig. 140), —
the same huge creatures which were hunted by the Late Stone
Age men of Europe a thousand years before (Fig. 12). These
people lived in com-
fortable quarters in *^ cC \\
the palace, where they
even had bathrooms
and sanitary drainage
(Fig. 142).

From the palace of
Cnossus the Cretan
king could issue at
the North Gate and,
mounting his chariot,
ride in half an hour
to the harbor, three
and a half miles away.
At the harbor he
looked out northward
where the nearest
islands of the ^gean
could be clearly seen
breaking the north-
ern horizon (see map,
p. 252). Here the
trading galleys of the
Cretan kings were

Fig. 142. Tile Drainpipes from the
Cretan Palace of Cnossus

These joints of pottery drainpipe {2\ feet
long and 4 to 6 inches across) are part of
an elaborate system of drainage in the
palace, the oldest drainage system in the
European world. The oldest-known system
of drainpipe (copper) is in the pyramid-
temple of Abusir, Egypt (see Fig. 56), about
a thousand years earlier than this system
at Cnossus

spreading Cretan art
and industries far and wide through the Mediterranean. These
Cretan fleets formed the earliest naval power which grew up in
the northern Mediterranean, and the student should contrast
the dugouts of the Late Stone Age (Fig. 14). Nevertheless, the
kings of Crete were now vassals of the Pharaoh. An Egyptian
general of Thutmose III (§ 1 1 1) in the fifteenth century B.C. bore

236

Ancient Times

346. Crete to
be regarded
as the home
of the third
great civili-
zation in the
ancient world

347. Cretan
civilization
reaches the
mainland of
Greece ; the
Mycenaean
Age

the title of " governor of the. islands in the midst of the sea,"
as the Egyptians called the islands of the ^gean (Fig. 143).
Here, then, in the island of Crete, there had arisen a new
world. The culture of the gifted Cretans, stimulated by the
magic touch of riper Egyptian culture, shook off the Late Stone

Age lethargy of early Europe
and sprang into a vigorous life
all its own. Beside the two
older centers of civilization on
the Nile and the two rivers in
this age, there thus grew up
here in the eastern Mediterra-
nean, as a third great civili-
zation, this splendid world of
Crete and the ^gean Sea.
It is this third great civiliza-
tion which forms the link be-
tween the civilization of the
Orient and the later progress
of man in Greece and western
Europe.

Section 35. The ^gean
World : the Mainland

Fig. 143. Golden Dish of

THE Egyptian Governor of

the i^gean islands in the

Grand Age

This golden dish was given by the
Pharaoh Thutmose III (§ iii) to
one of his favorite generals, whom
he had made governor of the
^gean islands. The dish bears an
inscription which calls him "gov-
ernor of the islands in the midst
of the sea," by which the Egyp-
tians meant the ^gean islands
and coasts of Asia Minor

As yet, the mainland, both
in Europe and in Asia Minor,
had continued to lag behind
the advanced civilization of the islands. Nevertheless, the fleets
of Egypt and of Crete maintained commerce with the main-
land of Greece. They naturally entered the southern bays,
and especially the Gulf of Argos, which looks southward di-
rectly toward Crete (see map, p. 252). In the plain of Argos
(Plate III), behind the sheltered inlet, massive strongholds,
with heavy stone masonry foundations and walls, arose at

The Dazvn of European Civilization

237

Tiryns (Fig. 144)
and Mycenae (Fig.
145). The ^gean
princes who built
such strongholds a
little after 1500 B.C.
imported works of
Cretan and Egyp-
tian art in pottery
and metal (Fig. 1 40).
These triumphs of
Cretan art, with
fragments of Egyp
tian glaze and wall
decorations, still sur-
viving in the ruins
of palaces and
tombs, are to-day
the earliest tokens
of a life of higher
refinement on the
continent of Europe.
This period (about
1500 to 1200 B.C.)
is commonly known
as the Mycenaean
Age, after Mycenae,
where such civiliza-
tion was first discov-
ered (Section 36).

But the main-
land still lagged be-
hind the islands,
for Cretan writing
seems not to have

Fig. 144. Restoration of the Castle

AND Palace of Tiryns. (After Lucken-

bach)

Unlike the Cretan palaces, this dwelling of
an ^gean prince is massively fortified. A
rising road {A) leads up to the main gate {B),
where the great walls are double. An assault-
ing party bearing their shields on the left arm
must here (C, D) march with the exposed
right side toward the city. By the gate {E)
the visitor arrives in the large court {F) on
which the palace faces. The main entrance
of the palace (C) leads to its forecourt {H),
where the excavators found the place of the
household altar of the king (§ 423). Behind
the forecourt {H) is the main hall of the
palace (/). This was the earliest castle in
Europe with outer walls of stone. The vil-
lages of the common people clustered about the European
the foot of the castle hill. The whole formed mainland
the nucleus of a city-state (§ 390) in the plain
of Argos (see Plate III, p. 276)

348. Con-
tinued back-
wardness of

238

Ancient Times

349. Asiatic
mainland :
foundation of
Troy (about
3000 B.C.)

followed Cretan commerce, and there was as yet no writing
prevalent on the continent of Europe. Regions of northern

Greece, such as Thessaly,
were covered with scat-
tered settlements which
had advanced but little be-
yond Late Stone Age civil-
ization. Metal, although
known, was not common
in Thessaly until about
1500 B.C., and the cul-
tured Cretans had little in-
fluence here in the north.
Along the Asiatic side
of the ^gean Sea we find
much earlier progress than
on the European side, al-
though this was but slightly
due to the commerce from
Crete, which seems to have
had little effect along the
shores of Asia Minor. In
the days when Crete was
first receiving metal (after
3000 B.C.), there arose at
the northwest corner of
Asia Minor a shabby little
Late Stone Age village
known as Troy. It was
probably built by traders
attracted by the profitable
traffic which was already
crossing back and forth be-
tween Asia and Europe at
this point (see map, p. 2 5 2).

Fig. 145. The Main Entrance
OF THE Castle of Mycenae,

CALLED THE LlON GaTE

This shows us a good example of the
heavy stone masonry with which were
built the great gates of the two cities
of the ^gean Grand Age, Tiryns and
Mycenae, on the plain of Argos (§ 347).
Above the gate is a large triangular
block of stone, carved to represent two
lions grouped on either side of a cen-
tral column. The whole doubtless
formed the emblem of the city, or the
arms of its kings. It is of course a
descendant of the two Babylonian lions
of Lagash, showing a similar balanced
arrangement with one on each side of
the center (Fig. 85)

The Dawn of European Civilization 239

By 2500 B.C., some centuries after the first metal had been 350. Growth
introduced, the rulers of Troy were wealthy commercial kings, (250^^
and their castle was the earliest fortress in the ^gean world, ^Soobx.)
for it was a thousand years older than the fortresses at Mycenae
and Tiryns. During this thousand years (2500 to 1500 B.C.)
Troy was rebuilt several times (Fig. 150), but it continued
to flourish, and it finally must have controlled a kingdom of
considerable extent in northwestern Asia Minor. Thus about
1500 B.C. the splendid and cultivated city of Troy was a power-
ful -stronghold (Sixth City), which had grown up as a northern
rival of that sumptuous Cnossus we have seen in the south.
The two rival cities faced each other from opposite ends of
the ^gean, but we infer that Cnossus was superior in civiliza-
tion, for it is still uncertain whether the Trojans of this age
could write.

Inland from Troy and the ^gean world, across the far- 351. Asia
stretching hills and mountains of Asia Minor, were the settle- land of the
ments of a great group of white peoples who were kindred of ^'"i'^s
the ^geans in civilization, though not in blood. We call them
Hittites. Although the larger part of their land lay outside of
the ^gean world, nevertheless, one end of it formed the eastern
shores of the ^gean Sea. Asia Minor, their land, is a vast penin-
sula from six hundred and fifty to seven hundred miles long and
from three to four hundred miles wide, being about as large as
the state of Texas. The interior is a lofty table-land, little better
than a desert in its central region. Around most of this table-
land rise mountain ridges, fringing both the table-land and the
sea. On both sides of the mountain fringe are fertile valleys
and plains, producing plentiful crops. The seaward slopes of
the mountains, especially along the Black Sea, are clad with
flourishing forests. The northern shores of Asia Minor, east of
the Halys River, rise into ridges containing rich deposits of
iron. The Hittites thus became the earliest distributors of iron
when it began to displace bronze in the Mediterranean world
and the East (§219).

240

Ancient Times

In discussing oriental influences in the ^gean, we have
already seen (§ 332) how Asia Minor formed a link between
the T^igean and the world of the Two Rivers, The people who
made it such a link were these Hittites. For at the eastern
end of their land they passed easily down the upper Euphrates
to the Fertile Crescent, where they merged with the peoples

there whose his-
tory we have
already stud-
ied. We reeall,
for example,
how they held
early Assur,
in competition
with Babylon
(§ 202). We
find also that
the Hittites
early borrowed
the old Baby-
lonian coat of
arms, a lion-
headed, or some-
times a double-
headed, eagle.
They handed it
on across the
^gean to later Europe, from which it passed to us in the United
States as the "American " eagle (Fig. 85).

Both in the ^gean and in the Fertile Crescent, that is, at
both ends of their land, the Hittites left their mark upon their
neighbors. We recall the prominent aquiline nose of the Hit-
tite people (Fig. 146). The same feature among the Hebrews
shows how the Hittites drifted down the west end of the Fer-
tile Crescent, until they reached Palestine (§ 291) in sufficient

Fig. 146. An Ancient Hittite and his
Modern Armenian Descendant

At the left is the head of an ancient Hittite as
carved by an Egyptian sculptor on the wall of a
temple at Thebes, Egypt, over three thousand years
ago. It strikingly resembles the profile of the Ar-
menians still living in the Hittite country, as shown
in the modern portrait on the right. The strongly
aquiline and prominent nose (§ 146) of the Hittites
was also acquired by the neighboring Se.mites along
the eastern end of the Mediterranean, including the
Canaanites (see headpiece, p. 197)

The Dawn of European Civilization

241

numbers to affect the Hebrew type of face. On the west in the
same way, Hittite life greatly influenced the cities along the
^gean coast of Asia Minor, where we shall find that even
the later Greeks still bore marks of Hittite influence, especially /
in important matters of business, like coinage (§ 458), but also
in religion and architecture.

It was from their contact with the Fertile Crescent that
the Hittites received the first influences leading to a higher
civilization. The most
important of these was S^S^'^mk
writing. The Babylo-
nian caravans, passing
up the Euphrates in
the days of Hammurapi
(§ 187) and earlier,
brought into Asia Minor
business and traffic, with
bills and other commer-
cial documents in cunei-
form writing on clay
tablets (Fig. 79). In
this way, like other peo-
ples in the West, the

Hittites learned cuneiform by 2000 B.C. or earlier. Excavation
in Asia Minor has even recovered fragments of the clay-tablet
dictionaries used by the Hittites in learning to write and spell
words in cuneiform. It was probably through the Hittites that
the use of the clay tablet passed over to Crete (Fig. 137).

The Hittites profited by the Egyptian civilization also, as they
received it through the cities of northern Syria, like Samal
(Fig. 97). Here, under the influence of Egyptian hieroglyphic
writing, they devised a system of picture signs with phonetic
values (Fig. 147). With these hieroglyphic signs they en-
graved great stone records like those of Egypt. These records
(Fig. 147), cut into the face of rocky cliffs or masonry walls,

Fig. 147. An Inscription in Hittite
Hieroglyphs

This example shows us the hieroglyphic
writing devised by the Hittites in imitation
of the Egyptian (§ 335). It was found at
Carchemish on the Euphrates. The same
writing may also be seen accompanying
the scene in Fig. 148

242

Ancient Times

Hittite

Still look down upon the passing traveler throughout a great
part of Asia Minor from the ^gean to the Euphrates, and new
ones are constantly being found by excavation. The Hittites
thus used two methods of writing — cuneiform and hieroglyphic.
Unfortunately, the Hittite records written in hieroglyphs carved
on stone are not yet deciphered. Just as this book goes to
press the decipherment of the Hittite cuneiform records has
been accomplished by Hrozny, an Austrian scholar. When all
these records have been read, like those of Egypt, Babylonia,
and Persia, they will reveal to us many new and wonderful facts
in the story of the ancient world.

At the same time the Hittites had made progress in building.
The king's palace front consisted of a porch in the middle, with
its roof supported on two columns, while on either side of the
porch was a square tower (Fig. 97, K). It was therefore called
a " house of two towers." This was the porch adopted from
the Hittites by the great Assyrian emperors (§ 224). It finally
reached even the Persians. It was adorned with great sentinel
lions carved in stone on either side of the entrance, an idea
suggested by the Egyptian sphinx. From the Hittite palaces this
idea of protecting beasts on either side of the palace entrance
passed also to Assyria. The Hittite palace porch was further-
more adorned with a dado, consisting of large flat slabs of stone
carved with relief pictures (Fig. 148), probably suggested by
similar Egyptian arrangements (Fig. 60). This idea, too, finally
passed by way of the Hittites to Assyria, where we recall the
long rows of stone pictures adorning the Assyrian palaces
(Figs. 105 and 106, B). The Hittite sculptors, however, had
little skill with the chisel. The Assyrians far surpassed them,
and under Assyrian influence the Hittites improved somewhat.

In these scenes we find also evidences of religious influences
from both Egypt and Babylonia, as we note among them the
Babylonian eagle already mentioned and the winged sun-disk
from the Nile. We should notice furthermore the devotion of
the Hittites to the great Earth-Mother as their chief goddess,

The Dawn of European Civilization

243

whom we have also found in Crete (headpiece, p. 221), and

who later was revered by the Greeks (§ 416).

In the great days of the Egyptian Empire, while Cnossus 358. Rise of
, ^ , . ; Vt. ,1 .1 the Hittite

was still in the Grand Age and Iroy her northern nval was Empire
building the splendid Sixth City, that is, about 1500 B.C., one cenuTiy^.c.)
of the Hittite kingdoms on the east of the Halys River (see
map, p. 100) was gaining great power. It had established

Fig. 148. A Hittite Prince hunting Deer

The prince accompanied by his driver stands in the moving chariot,
shooting with bow and arrow at the fleeing stag. A hound runs beside
the horses. Over the scene is an inscription in Hittite hieroglyphs
(§ 355). The whole is sculptured in stone, and forms a good example
of the rather crude Hittite art

a Strong fortified capital at a city called Khatti (map, p. 100).
This name is simply an ancient form of the modern name
" Hittite." The kings of Khatti erected imposing palaces and
temples, and built a great wall about the city (Fig. 152). They
succeeded in gaining control of the other Hittite kingdoms and
combining them into an empire which included a large part of
Asia Minor.

This Hittite Empire lasted for some two centuries and a half
(about 1450 to 1200 B.C.). The Hittites had received the horse,

244

Ancient Times

359. The

Hittite Em-
pire (about
1450-

1200 B.C.)

360. The

Hittites con-
tribute the
first iron to
the ancient
world

perhaps even earlier than the Babylonians (§ 197), and the
kings of Khatti were able to muster large and powerful bodies
of charioteers. They thus played a vigorous part in the great
group of nations around the eastern end of the Mediterranean
after Egypt established the first empire there (Section 9), They
had much to do with breakfng down the Egyptian Empire (§ 122),
and they survived to fight fierce battles with the Assyrians.

One of the most important things we should remember about
the Hittites is the fact that they began working the iron mines
along the Black Sea (§351). A clay-tablet letter written by one
of the Hittite kings tells us that he was about to send a
shipment of " pure iron " to Ramses II, who had asked for it,
and that meantime a sword of iron was being sent to the Egyp-
tian king as a gift (thirteenth century B.C.). We shall soon see
the Iron Age beginning in the vEgean (§ 392), and it was
from the Hittite iron mines that the metal first became com-
mon in the eastern Mediterranean. While the Hittite civiliza-
tion was inferior to that of Egypt and Babylonia, it played a
very important part in the group of civilizations forming the
oriental neighbors of the ^geans.

Section 36. Modern Discovery in the Northern

Mediterranean and the Rise of an Eastern

Mediterranean World

^61. Modem
Ignorance
of yEgean
civilization

We have been putting together the story of the rise and early
history of civilization along the north side of the eastern end of
the Mediterranean (see map, p. 252), extending from the ^gean
world at one end, through the Hittite country to the Two Rivers
at the other. Only a few years ago this story was entirely un-
known. Less than fifty years ago no one supposed that civilized
people had lived in the ^^gean world before the Greeks arrived
there. Much less did anyone dream that we would ever be
able to find the actual handiwork of the predecessors of the

The Dawn of European Civilization

245

Greeks in the ^gean world. The discoverer of the ^Egean civil-
ization which we have been studying was Heinrich Schliemann.

Schliemann was an American citizen of German birth. In 362. Life
his youth before coming to America he had a romantic busi- schliemann
ness career. After being shipwrecked on the coast of Holland,
he began his business experience there while a mere lad, as a

Fig. 149. The Mound containing the Nine Cities of
Ancient Troy (Ilium)

The process by which such artificial mounds grow up is explained in
§ 158. When Schliemann first visited this mound (see map, p. 254) in
1868, it was about 125 feet high, and the Turks were cultivating grain
on its summit. In 1870 he excavated a pit like a crater in the top of the
hill, passing downward in the course of four years through nine succes-
sive cities built each on the ruins of its predecessors. At the bottom of
his pit (about 50 feet deep) Schliemann found the original once bare
hilltop about 75 feet high, on which the men of the Late Stone Age
(§ 349) had established a small settlement of sun-baked brick houses
about 3000 B.C. (see Fig. 150). Above the scanty ruins of this Late
Stone Age settlement rose, in layer after layer, the ruins of the later
cities, with the Roman buildings at the top. The entire depth of 50 feet
of ruins represented a period of about thirty-five hundred years from
the First City (Late Stone Age) to the Ninth City (Roman) at the top.
The Second City (§ 350) contained the earliest copper found in the
series ; the Sixth City was that of the Trojan War and the Homeric
songs (§ 410). Its masonry walls may be seen in Fig. 151

clerk in a little grocer's shop. In the brief intervals of leisure
between dealing out smoked herring and rolls of butter, he
taught himself Greek and began to read Homer (§ 410). In
the infatuated ears of this enthusiastic boy the shouts of the
Greek heroes on the plain of Troy mingled with the jingle of
small change and the rustle of wrapping paper in the dingy
little Dutch grocery. He had not lost this fascinating vision of

246

Ancient Times

363. Schlie-
mann's exca-
vation and
discovery
of Troy

the early world, when years afterward he retired from business,
after having won a large fortune in Russian petroleum.

It was therefore as the fulfillment of a dream of his youth
that Schliemann led a body of Turkish laborers to begin excava-
tions in the great mound of Troy in 1870 (see map, p. 252, and
Fig. 149). In less than four years he uncovered the central

Gth City

. 1500B.C m

'ifdeslroijed 12thcent BC)g;>

2dCily 2500B.C. .2dVi?M
StoneAgeTmonannf.

Temples above =Jioman City (in ruins. 500. AD.)
Walls l = S«"3J'^ C^iy- i500. B.C (Homeric City)
%lllfi= Second City. 2500. B. C.

Fig. 150. Diagram OF the Mound of Ancient Troy showing

THE Walls of the Second and Sixth Cities and the Roman

Temple at the Top (Ninth City)

This diagram is much too high for its width, as you will see by com-
paring the width and height of the mound in Fig. 149. It has been
pushed together at the sides and narrowed to include it within the avail-
able space. Below is the native rock of the hill on which the Late Stone
Age settlement was built. Then come the sloping walls of the Second
City (shaded). Outside of these and rising much higher are the walls of
the Sixth City (black), which may be seen as they are to-day in Fig. 151.
The other cities of the nine are less important and have been left out
for the sake of clearness. Schliemann never saw the walls of the Sixth
City, the real Homeric city, because as he dug down in the middle of
the mound inside the ancient walls, he covered the walls of the Sixth
City with the rubbish he dug out

portions of nine successive cities, each built upon the ruins of
the next city beneath, which had preceded it (Fig. 150). A
towered gateway in the Second City contained a splendid treas-
ure of golden jewelry, and Schliemann believed that he had here
discovered the Troy of Homer's Greek heroes (§ 408). But
we now know that this Second City was built a thousand years
before Homer's Troy (the Sixth City (Fig. 150)).

The Dawn of European Civilization

247

The sensation aroused by these discoveries among the 364. Schlie-

scholars of Europe and America was mild compared with that ^tion^o?^^'

which followed when Schliemann, crossing to the mainland of ^[I'^eni"'^
Greece, began excavating the prehistoric fortress or castle of

Fig. 151. The Walls of Homeric Troy (built about 1500 b.c.)

A section of the outer walls of the Sixth City in the mound of Troy
(Fig. 150). The sloping outer surface of the walls faces toward the
right ; the inside of the city is on the left. These are the walls built in
the days when Mycenae was flourishing — walls which protected the
inhabitants of the place from the assaults of the Greeks in a remote war
which laid it in ruins after 1200 B.C., a war of which vague traditions
and heroic tales have survived in the Homeric poems (§ 408). These
are the walls, scaled by the Greek heroes, which Schliemann never
saw (compare description, Fig. 150). The walls of the houses of the
Seventh City are visible here resting on those of the Sixth

Mycenae (Fig. 145). Beneath the pavement of the market place
he found a group of stone tomb chambers containing a magnifi-
cent series of vessels and ornaments in gold, including an elabo-
rate golden crown, indicating the royalty of one of the dead.
Again Schliemann thought that these things belonged to the
Greek heroes of the Trojan wars (§ 408), but in reality they

248

Ancient Times

365. Excava-
tions in Crete
since 1900

366. Excava-
tion and dis-
covery in
Asia Minor,
the land of
the Hittites

were older. At the neighboring prehistoric castle of Tiryns
(Fig. 144 and § 347) Schliemann made similar discoveries.
Thus within a few years an unskilled and untrained excavator
disclosed to us a new and entirely unknown world of civilization
in the ^gean, which had flourished for centuries before the
Greeks appeared there.

The question of the original home of this early ^gean civili-
zation, however, was not settled by Schliemann's work. Since
1900 the excavations in Crete have shown this island to have
been the place where ^gean civilization made its start, and the
center from which it passed to the other islands and to the
mainland of Greece at Tiryns and Mycenae (§ 347). In these
discoveries American explorers have had an honorable share;
but they have been due chiefly to the remarkable excavations
of Sir Arthur Evans, the English archaeologist, at the city of
Cnossus. Here Evans has uncovered the splendid Cretan
palaces (Fig. 138), clearing out layer after layer of rubbish
containing works of Cretan art and industry, which carry us
back age after age to the rubbish of the Late Stone Age settle-
ment deep down at the bottom of the mound, over which the
first palace was built (§ 337).

At the same time exploration in Asia Minor has revealed
increasing numbers of Hittite monuments. Of these discoveries
the most important were those of the German expedition at
Khatti (Fig. 152), beginning in the winter of 1 906-1 907. Lying
just under the surface of the soil, where it was quite possible to
kick them out with the heel of one's boot, the explorers found
the clay tablets which once filled the state record chambers in
the palace of the Hittite kings at Khatti during the great days
of their empire three thousand years ago. Here were letters
to and from the kings of Egypt, Babylon, Assyria and all the
great powers of the oriental world which we have studied.
Among them was the letter already mentioned, containing the
Hittite king's notice of the coming shipment of iron. Besides
recovering the lost records, the German expedition gradually

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249

250

Ancient Times

excavated the walls of the ancient city and its chief buildings,
and recovered their architecture (cf. Fig. 152).

Although we are still unable to read the records of the
Cretans and are only beginning to read those of the Hittites,
the discoveries in their lands have revealed to us the earliest
chapter of civilization on the north side of the eastern Mediter-
ranean. If we connect these discoveries along the north side of
the Mediterranean at its east end with the earlier story of dis-
covery in the oriental lands east and south of the Mediterranean,
the student will perceive how scholars and explorers have car-
ried the work of excavation and discovery entirely around the
east end of the Mediterranean, from the lower Nile valley,
through the nations of the Fertile Crescent, to Asia Minor and
the ^gean Sea (see map, p. 100).

These discoveries have begun to show us how the civilized
peoples all around the eastern end of the Mediterranean, by
their industries and commerce, were gradually creating a civilized
world of which the ^gean Sea was merely a northern bay. We
recall our first glimpse of this eastern Mediterranean world as
we journeyed up the Nile and saw the Egyptian ships which
crossed the eastern Mediterranean nearly 3000 B.C. (Fig. 41).
But now we have studied the peoples on the east and north of
the Mediterranean and have seen how, at the close of the
Grand Age in Crete, the splendid ^gean civilization had been
mingling for centuries with the older oriental civilizations, espe-
cially that of the Nile, but also with that of Hittite Asia Minor
and through it with the civilization of the Fertile Crescent.

Into this civilized world of the eastern Mediterranean, with
its arts, its industries, and its far-reaching commerce, the uncivil-
ized peoples of the North behind the Balkan mountains and the
Black Sea were now beginning to intrude. These uncivilized
northerners were the Greeks. They were soon to overwhelm
the eastern Mediterranean, and with these Northern intruders
we must begin a new chapter in the history of the eastern
Mediterranean world.

The Dawn of European Civilization 251

QUESTIONS

Section 33. At what point in their progress did we leave the
Europeans when we first passed over to the Orient? What products
of the eastern Mediterranean reached the Late Stone Age Euro-
peans? How did these things reach Europe? Did the possession
of metal raise the Europeans to a high civilization?

Section 34. Was there any part of Europe nearer the Orient
than the y^gean world? By what two ways was it connected with
the Orient? What island of the ^gean is nearest to Egypt? De-
scribe the rise of civilization there. Can you mention some evidences
of Egyptian influence there ? Where did the Cretan sea-kings arise ?
What survives to tell us of their power ? What industries flourished ?
Can you mention some evidence of Cretan commerce ? What now
happened to Cretan writing? Tell something of Cretan decorative
art in the Grand Age ; of the work of sculptor and goldsmith. Tell
something of the life of the palace and of the peasants. Under what
foreign power were the Cretans at this time? What three great
civilizations now existed?

Section 35. Had the European mainland advanced as fast as
Crete in civilization? Where do we find evidences of the first civi-
lization on the continent of Europe, and what are they ? Date them.
Was there yet any writing common in Europe? Where and when
did civilization arise on the east side of the ^gean ? What led men
to this point? What can you say about the history and civilization
of Troy? What people occupied most of Asia Minor? Mention
some things which they passed on to the West from the East.
Recall some evidences of their influence in the East. What influ-
ences reached the Hittites from the Fertile Crescent and from Egypt ?
When did the Hittite Empire arise, and what can you say about its
influence? What was the most important thing which the Hittites
contributed to other peoples ?

Section 36. Who first discovered remains of people who had oc-
cupied the ^gean world before the Greeks ? Tell something of his
life. What did he find at Troy? in Greece? What has excavation
in Crete since shown ? What has excavation in Asia Minor revealed ?
With reference to the eastern end of the Mediterranean how far have
excavation and discovery been carried ? What kind of a world has dis-
covery revealed in the eastern Mediterranean? What uncivilized
Northerners were now intruding into this eastern Mediterranean world?

CHAPTER IX
THE GREEK CONQUEST OF THE iEGEAN WORLD

Section 37. The Coming of the Greeks

370. South- The people whom we call the Greeks were a large group of

of the Indo- tribes of Indo-European race. We have already followed the
Hne^n^^" Indo-European parent people until their diverging migrations
Europe finally ranged them in a line from the Atlantic Ocean to north-

em India (§243 and Fig. 112). While their eastern kindred

Note. The above headpiece shows a line of captive warriors with their hands
shackled before them or pinioned over their heads. They wear a tall feathered
headdress, which shows them to be Philistines (§296), a tribe of Cretan war-
riors driven out of Crete by the Greeks (§ 379). Some of them, invading
Egypt in their flight, were taken captive by Ramses III, the last of the Egyptian
emperors, not long after 1200 b,c. He therefore placed this picture of them on
the walls of his temple at Thebes, Egypt. Other pictures of them may be seen
in Fig. 154, recognizable by their headdress.

252

The Greek Conquest of the ^gean World 253

the Greek
peninsula

were drifting southward on the east side of the Caspian, the
Greeks on the west side of the Black Sea were likewise mov-
ing southward from their broad pastures along the Danube
(see map II, p. 252).

Driving their herds before them, with their families in rough 371. The
carts drawn by horses, the rude Greek tribesmen must have
looked out upon
the fair pastures
of Thessaly, the
snowy summit of
Mount Olympus
(Fig. 153), and the
blue waters of the
^gean not long
after 2000 B.c.
The Greek penin-
sula which they had
entered contains
about twenty-five
thousand square
miles.-^ It is every-
where cut up by
mountains and in-
lets of the sea into
small plains and
peninsulas, sepa-
rated from each
other either by the
sea or the moun-
tain ridges. No less than five hundred islands are scat-
tered along its deeply indented eastern shores (map, p. 264,
and Plate III). On its climate and products see § 331.

1 About one sixth smaller than South Carolina — so small that Mount Olympus
on the northern boundary of Greece is visible over much of the peninsula.
From the mountains of Sparta one can see from Crete to the mountains north of
the Corinthian Gulf (see Fig. 163), a distance of two hundred and twenty-five miles.

Fig. 153.

Mount Olympus
OF THE Gods

THE Home

Although Mount Olympus is on the northern
borders of Greece, it can be seen from Attica
and the south end of Euboea. It approaches
10,000 feet in height, and looks down upon
Macedonia on one side and Thessaly on the
other (see map, p. 264). As we look at it here
from the south, we have a portion of the plain
of Thessaly in the foreground, where the first
Greeks entered Hellas (§ 371), and where later
the earliest Homeric songs of the Greek heroes
were composed (§ 408)

254

Ancient Times

The wandering shepherds whom we have seen so often in-
vading the Fertile Crescent (§§ 135, 167, and 294) to find a set-
tled and civilized town life there, furnish us the best possible
illustration of the situation of the Greeks as they invaded the
^gean towns and setdements like Tiryns and Mycenae (§ 347).
As the newcomers looked out across the waters they could dimly
discern the islands, where flourishing towns were carrying on
busy industries, especially in pottery and metal, which a thriving
commerce was distributing (§§ 339 and 345).

We can imagine the wonder with which these barbarian
Greeks must have looked out upon the white sails that flecked
the blue surface of the ^gean Sea. It was to be long, how-
ever, before these inland shepherds would themselves venture
timidly out upon the great waters which they were viewing for
the first time. Had the gaze of the Greek nomads been able
to penetrate beyond the ^gean isles, they would have seen a
vast panorama of great and flourishing oriental states. Here on
the borders of the great oriental world and under its influences
the Greeks were now to go forward toward the development of
a civilization higher than any the Orient had yet produced, the
highest indeed which ancient man ever attained.

Gradually their vanguard (called the Achaeans) pushed south-
ward into the Peloponnesus, and doubtless some of them
mingled with the -^gean dwellers in the villages which were
grouped under the walls of Tiryns and Mycenae (Figs. 144, 145,
and Plate HI), just as the Hebrew nomads mingled with the
Canaanite townsmen (§ 294). Some of the Greek leaders may
have captured these ^gean fortresses, just as David took Jeru-
salem (§ 297). But our knowledge of the situation in Greece is
very meager because the peoples settled here could not yet write,
and therefore have left no written documents to tell the story.
It is evident, however, that a second wave of Greek nomads
(called the Dorians) reached the Peloponnesus by 1500 b.c.
and subdued their earlier kinsmen (the Achaeans) as well as the
^gean townsmen, the original inhabitants of the region.

The Greek Conquest of the ^gean World 255

The Dorians did not stop at the southern limits of Greece, 375. The
but, learning a little navigation from their ^gean predecessors, pJss^ession^of
they passed over to Crete, where they must have arrived by ^^l^^P^^
1 400 B. c. Cnossus, unfortified as it was, and without any walled Dorians in
castle (§ 338), must have fallen an easy prey to the invading southern
Dorians, who took possession of the island, and likewise seized "^sean
the other southern islands of the ^Egean. Between 1300 and
1000 B.C. the Greek tribes took possession of the remaining
islands, as well as the coast of Asia Minor — the Dorians in the
south, the lonians in the middle, and the ^olians in the north.
Here a memorable Greek expedition in the twelfth century
B.C., after a long siege, captured and burned the prosperous
city of Troy (§ 350), a feat which the Greeks never after
forgot (§ 408). During the thousand years between 2000 and
1000 B.C. the Greeks thus took possession not only of the
whole Greek peninsula but likewise of the entire ^gean world.

The interior of Asia Minor suffered likewise. Other Indo- 376. Phryg-
Europeans, kindred of the Greeks, were pushing southward Armenians
behind them. Some of these rearward Indo-European tribes jJJY^*^^ ^^^
found it easier to cross the Hellespont and invade Asia Minor
than to push on into Greece. Probably before 1500 B.C. some
of these invaders of Asia Minor had become so numerous
among the Hittites, who were not originally Indo-Europeans,
that the Hittite communities began to lose their own tongue
and to speak the Indo-European language of the newcomers.
Thus the Hittite cuneiform tablets (§ 354) are in a language
which contains Indo-European words and grammatical forms
akin to those in Greek, as the new decipherment (§ 355) has
recently shown. By 1 200 b. c. a second wave of Indo-Europeans,
especially the Phrygians and the Armenians, were invading the
Hittite country in Asia Minor.

The northern Mediterranean all along its eastern end was 377. FHghtof
thus being absorbed by Indo-European peoples. The result .Egeans
was that both the ^geans and their Hittite neighbors in Asia
Minor were overwhelmed by the advancing Indo-European

256

Ancient Times

line The Hittite Empire (§ 359) completely collapsed. The
splendid ^^gean civilization which we saw rising so prosper-
ously was unable to repel the invaders. Probably few of the
common people of the ^gean towns were able to flee. On
the other hand, the noble and well-to-do ^gean families, the
class to which our elegantly dressed little Cretan lady of the
statuette (Fig. 141) belonged, — forming, all told, considerable
numbers, — must have taken to the sea and fled. They looked
back upon burning towns and villas, and they must have seen
the splendid palace of Cnossus, with all its beautiful treasures
of Cretan art, going up in smoke and flame.

By 1200 B.C. the movement of the Greek or Indo-European
invasion from the north had thus set in motion before it a wave
of fleeing ^geans, which crossed the sea and broke upon the
shores of the southeastern Mediterranean from the Nile Delta
to the harbors of Phoenicia. It was this wave of ^gean fugi-
tives which aided in overturning the tottering Egyptian Empire.
An Egyptian relief scene shows us the earliest-known picture
of a naval battle (Fig. 154) — a sea fight off the coast of Syria,
in which the last of the Egyptian emperors beat off an ^gean
fleet (§ 124).

The only region where the fleeing ^geans were numerous
enough to settle and to form a nation was in Southern Pales-
tine. Here a tribe of Cretans called Philistines (headpiece,
p. 252), although they had been beaten in the sea fight just
mentioned, were able to establish themselves and build up a
group of prosperous cities, in the twelfth century B.C. We recall
how they nearly succeeded in crushing the young Hebrew
nation just then emerging (§ 296). Curiously enough, it was
these fugitives from the ^gean world who gave to Palestine
its present name, for " Palestine " is simply a later form of the
name " Philistine."

The Indo-European invasion of the ^gean world thus broke
up the prosperous and highly civilized communities which we
have seen there, especially in Crete. By 1200 B.C. the splendid

The Greek Conquest of the jEgean World 257

^gean civilization had been almost submerged by northern bar-
barism, little better than the Late Stone Age life which we
have already seen in Europe. Some important things in
^gean civilization perished entirely — among them Cretan

Fig. 154. Battle between a Fleet of Fleeing ^Egeans
AND AN Egyptian Fleet

This scene, sculptured on the walls of an Egyptian temple at Thebes
(§ 124), is the earhest surviving picture of a naval battle. It shows us
the Mediterranean peoples defeated by the last Egyptian emperor,
Ramses III, not long after 1200 B.C., somewhere along the Syrian
coast (§ 378). Of the nine ships engaged four are Egyptian (lion's head
on the prow) — three at the left and one in the lower right-hand corner.
The remaining five are i^gean ships (goose-head on the prow). One
iEgean ship (middle, below) has been overturned. The ^^-geans are
Philistines with feathered headdress (see headpiece, p. 252), and we
see here how they passed from Crete to Palestine (§ 379). The ^geans
are armed only with round shields and spears or two-edged swords (§ 776),
whereas the Egyptians are chiefly archers, who overwhelm the enemy
with archery volleys at long range and then close in, taking Philistine
prisoners who may be seen standing bound in the Egyptian ships

writing, which disappeared after the Greek "invasion. Enough
of ^gean industries survived, however, to form an essential part
of the foundation upon which the barbarian Greeks were yet
to build up the highest civilization of the ancient world.

Such of the ^gean population as had not fled before the
incoming Greeks mingled with their Greek conquerors, just as

258 Ancient Times

we have seen the civilized Canaanites of Palestine mingling
with the invading Hebrew nomads (§ 294). This commingling
of ^geans and Greeks produced a mixed race, the people
known to us as the Greeks of history. How much ^gean
blood may have flowed in their veins we are unable to deter-
mine. But the supreme genius of the classical Greeks may
well have been due, in some measure, to this admixture of the
blood of the gifted Cretans, with their open-mindedness toward
influences from abroad and their fine artistic instincts.

The mingling of Greek and ^gean blood did not result
in a similar mixture of speech, as English is made up of
French and Anglo-Saxon. Greek, the language of the victori-
ous invaders, gradually became the language of the ^gean
world. At the same time Greek did not blot out every trace
of the older yEgean language of the region. People continued
to call the towns, rivers, and mountains, like Mount Parnassus,
by the old ^gean names they found in use, just as we found
Indian geographical names in America and continue to call our
greatest river by its old Indian name, Mississippi (" Father of
Waters "). Such names in Greece are to-day surviving remnants
of the lost ^gean language, now no longer anywhere spoken.*
It is interesting also to notice that a few ^gean words for
civilized conveniences, such as the Greek invaders did not
possess, likewise survived. So the word " bathtub " in Greek
is really an old ^gean word. For of course a race of wander-
ing shepherds such as the Greeks had been, had no such
luxuries; whereas we have recovered the actual bathtubs of
the refined ^geans (§ 344), from whom the Greeks learned
the name. Nevertheless, the Greek language was already de-
veloping as the richest and most beautiful instrument of speech
man has ever possessed.

1 We do not know to what group of languages the old ^Egean speech, now
lost, belonged. The still undeciphered Cretan writings (§ 340) may yet reveal this
secret. The claim made in America that one variety of Cretan hieroglyphic has
been deciphered, and found to be Greek, is without foundation. The recent deci-
pherment of Hittite cuneiform (§§ 355 and 376) should aid in solving the problem.

The Greek Conquest of the j^gean World 259

Section 38. The Nomad Greeks make the
Transition to the Settled Life

In tranquil summer days one can pass from island to island S^s* Early

r r^ ... Greeks not

and cross the entire ^Egean Sea from Greece to Asia Minor a maritime
in a rowboat. This is why a group of shepherd tribes like the ^^°^ ^
Greeks had been able to cross and take possession of the islands
of the ^gean and the coast of neighboring Asia Minor. But
we must not conclude that at this early stage of their history
they had already taken to the sea and become a people of
sailors. Centuries later we find the Greek peasant-poet Hesiod
(700 B.C.) looking with shrinking eye upon the sea. Long after
they had taken possession of the ^gean world the Greeks re-
mained a barbarous people of flocks and herds, without any
commerce by sea.

If we would understand the situation of the Greeks after 384. Earliest
their conquest of the civilized ^gean world, we must again tut?ons"V
recall nomad life as we have seen it along the Fertile Crescent *^^ Greeks
in Asia (§ 136). We remember that the nomads possessed no
organized government, for there was no public business which
demanded it. Even to-day among such people no taxes are
collected, for no one owns any land which can be taxed.
There are no public officials, there are no cases at law, no legal
business, and men are controlled by a few customs like the
" blood revenge " (§ 136). Such was exactly the condition
of the nomad Greeks when they began a settled life in the
^gean world.

From their old wandering life on the grasslands they carried 385. Tribes,
with them the loose groups of families known as tribes, and and"«as-'
within each tribe an indefinite number of smaller groups of s^mbly"
more intimate families called " brotherhoods." A '' council "
of the old men (" elders ") occasionally decided matters in
dispute, or questions of tribal importance, and probably once
a year, or at some important feast, an " assembly " of all the
weapon-bearing men of the tribe might be held, to express its

26o

Ancient Times

386. Rise of
Greek kings

387. Greeks
begin agri-
culture

388. Rise of
land owner-
ship and its
consequences
in govern-
ment and
society

opinion of a proposed war or migration. These are the germs
of later European political institutions and even of our own
in the United States to-day.-^

It was perhaps after they had found kings over such ^gean
cities as Mycenae (§ 347) that the Greeks (like the Hebrews,
§ 296) began to want kings themselves. Thus the old-time
nomad leaders whom they had once followed in war, religion,
and the settlement of disputes became rude shepherd kings
of the tribes.

Meantime the Greek shepherds slowly began the cultivation
of land. This forced them to give up a wandering life to build
houses and live in permanent homes. Nomad instincts and
nomad customs were not easily rooted out however. War and
the care of flocks continued to be the occupation of the men^
as it had been for centuries on the Northern grasslands ; while
the cultivation of the fields was at first left to the women.
Furthermore, flocks and herds continued to make up the chief
wealth of the Greeks for centuries after they had taken up
agriculture.

As each Greek tribe settled down and became a group of
villages, the surrounding land was divided among the families
by lot, though the tribe as a whole long continued to be the
only real owner of the land. Nevertheless, private ownership
of land by families gradually resulted. As a consequence there
arose disputes about boundaries, about inheritances in land
(§ 452), and much other legal business, which as it increased
required more and more attention by those in authority. The
settlement of such business tended to create a government.
During the four centuries from 1000 to 600 B.C. we see the
Greeks struggling with the problem of learning how to transact
the business of settled landholding communities, and how to

1 Compare the House of Lords ( = the above " council ") and the House of
Commons ( = the above "assembly") in England, or the Senate (derived from
the Latin word meaning "old man") and the House of Representatives in the
United States.

The Greek Conquest of the u^gean World 26 1

adjust the ever-growing friction and strife between the rich
and the poor, the social classes created by the holding of
land and the settled life (cf. § 31).

We have seen the Semitic nomads struggling with the same 389. Lack
problems on the Fertile Crescent (§ 167). But for them the amoriythe
situation was in one important particular much easier. They ^^^^^ Greeks
found among their settled predecessors a system of writing
which they quickly learned (§ 167). But the old Cretan writing
(§ 340), once used by the ^gean predecessors of the Greeks,
had perished. No one had ever yet written a word of the
Greek language in this age when the Greeks were adopting
the settled agricultural life. This lack of writing greatly in-
creased the difficulties to be met as a government arose and its
transactions began. There arose in some communities a "re-
memberer," whose duty it was to notice carefully the terms of
a contract, the amount of a loan, or the conditions of a treaty
with a neighboring people, that he might remember these and
innumerable other things, which in a more civilized society are
recorded in writing.

In course of time the group of villages forming the nucleus of 390.
a tribe grew together and merged at last into a city. This was * ^ ^
the most important process in Greek political development ; for
the organized city became the only nation 'which the Greeks
ever knew. Each city-state was a sovereign power ; each had
its own laws, its own army and gods, and each citizen felt a
patriotic duty toward his own city and no other. Overlooking
the city from the heights in its midst was the king's castle
(Fig, 144), which we call the "citadel," or "acropolis." Even-
tually, the houses and the market below were protected by a
wall. The king had now become a revered and powerful ruler
of the city, and guardian of the worship of the city gods. King
and Council sat all day in the market and adjusted the busi-
ness and the disputes between the people: Though crude, cor-
rupt, and often unjust, these continuous sessions for the first
time created a state and an uninterrupted government.

262 Ancient Times

There were hundreds of such city-states throughout the
mainland of Greece and the coasts and islands of the ^gean.
Indeed the ^gean world was made up of such tiny nations
after the Greeks had made the transition to the settled life
there. It was while the Greeks were thus living in these little
city-kingdoms under kings that Greek civilization arose. While
there were Greek kings long before looo B.C., it is especially
after that date, during the last two and a half centuries of the
rule of the kings (1000-750 B.C.), that we are able to follow
the rise of Greek civilization.

QUESTIONS

Section 37. To what race did the Greeks belong.? Had they
always lived in Greece? Whence did they come? Were they ac-
customed to settled town life? What kind of surroundings as to
civilization did they now enter ? Describe their settlement and spread
in the ^Egean world ; in Asia Minor. What was the effect upon the
predecessors of the Greeks in the ^gean? in Asia Minor? Men-
tion evidence of the flight of the y^geans. Who were the Philistines
and where did they settle ? What happened to yEgean civilization ?
to architecture ? to industries ? to writing ? What became of the
vEgeans who remained behind ? Describe the results as to language.

Section 38. Did the Greeks at once take to the sea? Did they
take up town life at once? What other nomad peoples have we
found in the same situation ? What social institutions did the Greeks
bring with them ? What can you say of the social effects of agricul-
ture and landownership ? How did the Greeks get along without
writing? What became of the villages around each Greek town?
Did the Greek towns all unite into one great nation including all the
Greeks? What was each Greek nation? Toward what did the
Greek feel patriotism? Describe a Greek city-state. Were there
many of them ? Was there a nation including all the iCgean world ?
Who was at the head of each city-state? What was the form of
government when Greek civilization arose ? Date the period when
we are able to trace the rise of Greek civilization.

»^^^ ^t/'' 'T!»*'lil^

BB_L

^^/^p* '"'*''!^^''^^J»

^■^

-|^^\

CHAPTER X

GREEK CIVILIZATION IN THE AGE OF THE KINGS

Section 39. The ^gean Inheritance and the
Spread of Phoenician Commerce

In one very important matter the Greek invaders were more 392. Begin
fortunate than their ^gean predecessors. The iron which we "ron Age ^
have seen spreading in the Orient from the Hittite country Jo^o^b c.)
(§360) had at the same time (thirteenth century B.C.) also
begun to reach the Greeks. It was of course a matter of
some centuries before iron tools and weapons entirely displaced
those of bronze, just as the automobile will be a long time
in entirely banishing the horse from among us. Indeed, after
iron had been in common use among the Greeks for over five
hundred years, the Greek poet ^schylus (§ 578) called it the
" stranger from across the sea," or " the Chalybean stranger,"
the Chalybean region being the iron district of Asia Minor (see

Note. The above headpiece is a Greek vase-painting showing a battle scene
from the Trojan War. In the middle is the fallen Achilles, for the possession of
whose body a desperate combat is going on (§ 407). Here we see the armor of
the early Greek warriors — a round shield on the left arm, a long spear in the
right hand. A heavy two-edged sword was also carried, but the bow was not
common. Only one warrior here uses it. The face is protected by a heavy helmet
crowned by a tall plume of horsehair, and the body is covered by a bronze corse-
let, a jacket of metal reaching from the neck to the waist. Below the knees the
legs are protected by bronze fronts called greaves. At the extreme left a com-
rade binds up a wounded warrior, on whose shield is the bird of his family arms
(cf. Fig. 27). Behind him the goddess Athena watches the combat. The paint-
ing is done in the older style of black figures on a red ground (contrast Fig. 170).
The artist has inserted the names of the warriors, some written from left to right
and some in the other direction (cf . headpiece, p. 282) .

263

264

Ancient Times

393. Mem-
ories of
iEgean civili-
zation, and
the dawn
of Greek
civilization

394. Oriental
influences :
clothing

map, p. 100). By 1000 B.C. iron was common in Greece. The
Bronze Age had therefore lasted about two thousand years,
that is, about as long as the career of the ^gean civilization.
We may say indeed that the period of ^gean civilization coin-
cided with the Bronze Age (3000-1000 B.C.), while the civi-
lization of the Greeks arose at the incoming of the Iron Age
(about 1000 B.C.).

Long after 1000 B.C. the life of the Greeks continued to be
rude and even barbarous. Memories of the old ^gean splendor
lingered in the plain of Argos. Above the Greek village at
Mycenae still towered the massive stone walls (Fig. 145) of the
ancient ^gean princes, who had long before passed away. To
these huge walls the Greeks looked up with awe-struck faces
and thought that they had been built by vanished giants called
Cyclops. Or with wondering admiration they fingered some
surviving piece of rich metal work wrought by the skill of the
ancient ^gean craftsmen (Fig. 140). The tradition that Crete
was the earliest home of their civilization never died out among
the Greeks. Without any skill in craftsmanship, the Greek
shepherds and peasants were slow to take up building, indus-
tries, and manufacturing on their own account. Their slowness
is also evident in the matter of writing, which the Greeks, as we
have seen (§ 389), failed to learn from their ^gean prede-
cessors. For a long time even the dwellings of the Greek kings
were usually but simple farmhouses of sun-dried brick, where
the swine wandered unhindered into the court or slumbered in
the sunshine beside the royal doorway. They made a begin-
ning at pottery, and the rude paintings with which they deco-
rated this rough ware (Fig. 155) show that the same methods
employed by the ^gean potters in producing their fine ware
in Crete a thousand years earlier (Fig. 136) were still lingering
on in a decadent state.

When we remember the experience of the ^gean peoples
(§§ 332-333), we perceive that the Greeks were now exposed to
the same oriental influences which had so strongly affected early

GREECE

IN THE FIFTH CENTURY B.C

SCALE OF MILES

Longitude

Greeuwifh Si

Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 265

Fig. 155.. Primitive Greek Art as

SHOWN IN A Painted Vase of the Age

, OF THE Kings

This very fine specimen, over 3^- feet high,
one of the few well-preserved primitive
Greek vases, was recently acquired by the
Metropolitan Museum of New York. It rep-
resents Greek art in its beginnings in the
eighth century B.C. We see that the beauti-
ful flowers, sea plants, and other natural
objects employed by the i^geans in their
decorative art were abandoned by the early
Greek vase-painters, in favor of bands of

geometrical designs. The two rows of scenes show a funeral above, with
the body lying on a high bier. Below is a procession of warriors with
dumb-bell-shaped shields, and four-wheeled chariots each with three
horses very rudely drawn. Compare the fine horses painted by the
Greeks only a century and a half later (Fig. 164) and the magnificent
steeds painted four and a half centuries later (Fig. 202). The practical
working method employed in this work by the primitive Greek potter and
vase-painter was wholly borrowed from his ^gean predecessors (§ 393)

^gean civilization.
The Greek towns-
men had now put off
the shaggy sheepskin
of their former nomad
life in favor of a shirt-
like garment of woven
wool. They had no
name for it in Greek,
but they heard the
foreign merchants of
whom they bought it
calling it in their lan-
guage a kiton (ke ton')
(Fig. 156).

To purchase arti-
cles like this, which
they did not them-
selves make, the towns-
men often went down
to the seashore, where
they and their women
gathered about a ship
drawn up with stern
on the beach. Black-
bearded traders, who
overlooked the crowd
from the high stem

395. The

wares of the

Phoenician

merchants

266

Ancient Times

396. Ex-
pansion of
Phoenician
commerce

of the ship, tempted the Greeks with glass or alabaster perfume
bottles from Egypt (Fig. 49) and rich blue porcelain dishes. If
the women did not bid for these, they were quite unable to
resist certain handsome ivory combs carved with lions in open-
work (Fig. 157), and polished till they shone in the sun.
Wealthy Greeks were attracted by
furniture elaborately inlaid with ivory
carvings (Fig. 108), and especially by
magnificent large round platters of
bronze or even of silver, richly en-
graved (Fig. 158). Splendid purple
robes hanging over the stern of the
ship enriched the display of golden
jewelry with flashes of brilliant color.
Here too were the kitons, as we would
have heard these swarthy strangers
from the sea calling them. They were
Phoenicians, and the word for the new
garment adopted by the Greeks was a
Phoenician word (see map II, p. 252).
We see then that with the fall of the
Egyptian Empire (after 1200 B.C.) the
ships of Egypt in the eastern Mediter-
ranean had disappeared. The same
fate had at the same time overtaken
the fleets of the ^geans. Thus the
eastern Mediterranean was left un-
occupied by merchant fleets, and by
1000 B.C. the Phoenician cities (Fig. 159) were taking advantage
of this opportunity. Once dwellers in the desert like the Hebrews,
we remember that the Phoenicians had early occupied the towns
along the Syrian coast (§ 141), where they became clever navi-
gators. The Greek craftsmen were as yet quite unable to pro-
duce such wares as the Phoenician merchant offered, and hence
these oriental traders did a thriving business wherever they landed.

Fig. 156. Phcenician

Garment adopted by

THE Greeks

The Greeks called this
garment a kiton (early
pronounced ke ton'; later,
chi ton') (see §§ 394-395)-
The garments of women
may be seen in Fig. 170

Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 267

Nor did the Phoenicians stop with the ^gean world. They
sought markets also in the West, and they were the discoverers
of the western Mediterranean.
They finally planted settlements
even as far away as the Atlantic
coast of Spain (Fig. 157). Their
colony of Carthage (map, p. 288)
became the most important com-
mercial state in the western Medi-
terranean and the most dangerous
rival of Rome, as we shall see
(Sections 77 f.). For some three
centuries after 1000 B.C. they
were the greatest merchants in
the Mediterranean, and their far-
reaching traffic was beginning the
slow creation of a great mercan-
tile Mediterranean world. They
had no armies, however, and little
political organization. The only
Phoenician colony that ever be-
came a strong state was Carthage.

The Phoenicians learned the
methods of manufacturing their
goods, in almost all cases, from
Egypt. There they learned to
make glass and porcelain, to
weave linen and dye it, to cast
and hammer and engrave metal.
On the other hand, we find that
the designs employed in their art
were international. Their metal platters (Fig. 158) they en-
graved with designs which they found in both Egypt and Asia.
The art of Phoenicia was thus a kind of oriental composite or
combination, drawn chiefly from the Nile and the Two Rivers.

397- The
Phoenicians
the earliest
explorers of
the western
Mediter-

FiG. 157. Ancient Phoe-
nician Comb of Carved
Ivory

Such wares, manufactured at
Sidon and Tyre, were dis-
tributed by the Phoenician
merchants through the Medi-
terranean (§ 395) as far west as
Spain, where combs like this
have been found in ancient
graves. The lion adorning this
comb is the form that devel-
oped in Syria (cf. Plate II).
Phoenician craftsmen doing
such work were also kept by
the Assyrian emperors at Nin-
eveh, and pieces of their work
have been found there (Fig.
108) bearing Phoenican signs

268

Ancient Times

399. Oriental
decorative
art reaches
Europe

We remember that it was Phoenician workmen whom the Assyr-
ian kings employed to make furniture and metal work for the
royal palace (Fig. 108). King Solomon likewise employed Phoe-
nician work-
men to build
for him the
Hebrew tem-
ple at Jerusa-
lem (i Kings,
v). After 1 000
B.C. the Phoe-
nicians were
thus the artis-
tic manufac-
turers of a
great world ex-
tending from
Nineveh on
the east to
Greece on the
west.

On the metal
platters and
the furniture
of carved ivory
landed from
the Phoenician
ships (§ 395),
the Greek
craftsmen found

decorations made up of palm trees, lotus flowers, hunting scenes
along the Nile, the Assyrian tree of life (Fig. 102), and many
other picturesque things, but especially those strange winged
creatures of oriental fancy, the sphinx, the gryphon, the winged
horse. The Greeks soon began to imitate these things in their

Fig. 158. Ancient Phcenician Platter
Engraved and Beaten Work

This silver platter, now in the Berlin Museum, is of
beautiful workmanship. A circular stream of water
surrounds a rosette in the middle. On the water are
four Nile boats (one of them in the form of a swan),
outside of which is a circular border of papyrus flowers.
The Phoenicians were very skillful in such metal work,
which they thus adorned with Egyptian and Assyrian
designs. Pieces of it have been found as far west as
Spain and as far east as Nineveh, whither they were
carried by the Phoenician merchants

Greek Civilization ift the Age of the Kings 269

own work. Thus the whole range of oriental decorative art
entered Greek life, to fill forever after a large place in the
decorative art of all civilized peoples of the West, including our
own to-day. At the same time it is highly probable that in the
Phoenician workshops in the ^gean islands the Greeks could
work side by side with the Phoenician craftsmen and learn how

Fig. 159. The Ancient Phoenician Harbor of Sidon as it
NOW appears

It was from this harbor that the Phoenician colonists sailed forth to
establish new cities in the western Mediterranean, especially Carthage
{§ 397)' Iri the Homeric poems the Phoenicians are often called Sido-
nians. The town seen across the harbor is entirely modern, for the
ancient city was again and again destroyed and rebuilt. Here the
Phoenician ships were loaded with the goods manufactured in the city
(Figs, 157 and 158), to be carried to the Greeks and other Mediterranean
peoples ; and here an alphabet first came into common use (§ 400)

to make hollow bronze casts, an art invented in Egypt, and to
manufacture many other things which were bringing such
commercial success to the Phoenician merchants. Nevertheless,
so little of the refined ^gean art of the Grand Age had sur-
vived that there are products of the Greeks in this period that
are hardly as good as the work of the Middle Stone Age
(compare the horses in Figs. 155 and 10, 6),

270

Ancient Times

400. The
Phcenicians
devise an
alphabet
(about
1000 B.C.)

401. The

Phoenicians
arrange their
new letters in
a fixed order
and give
them names

Section 40. The Phcenicians bring the First
Alphabet to Europe

But styles of dress, decorative art, and the practical methods
of the craftsman were not the only things which the Phoenician
merchants were bringing into Greece. For the Greeks now re-
ceived from the Phcenicians a priceless gift, far more valuable
than all the manufactured wares of the Orient. Indeed it was
the most important contribution that ever reached Europe from
abroad. This new gift was an alphabet. By 1000 B.C. the
Phoenicians had long since given up the inconvenient clay tablet
of Babylonia (Fig. 79). Indeed a century before this date they
were already importing great quantities of papyrus paper from
Egypt. Then they devised their own system of twenty-two signs
(Fig. 160, column I) for writing their own language. It con-
tained no signs for syllables, but each sign represented a single
consonant. There were no signs for the vowels, which therefore
remained unwritten. The Phoenicians were thus the first people
to devise a system of writing containing nothing but alpha-
betic signs ; that is, true letters. This great achievement of the
Phoenicians was largely due to Egyptian influences.

The Phoenicians arranged their new letters in a convenient
order, so that the whole twenty-two might form a fixed list
(Fig. 1 60, column I), easily learned. Such a list could not be
learned without giving to each letter a name. They called the
first letter of the alphabet ox, because the Phoenician word for
ox, that is, aleph, began with the first letter. The second letter
of the alphabet they called house, because heth, the Phoenician
word for house, began with the second letter, and so on. This
was not unlike our old primers, where our parents learned to
say : "^ is for * Axe ' ; ^ is for * Bed,' " etc. When the chil-
dren of the Phoenician merchants learned their letters, and
were called upon to repeat the alphabet, they therefore began :
^^Aleph, beth," etc., as if our children were to say: "Axe, Bed,"
etc., instead of " A, B," etc.

Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 271

The Phoenicians seem to have had little literature, but their 402. Phoe-
merchants kept all their business records in this new and con- beTfirstseen
venient writing on papyrus. Just as the Arameans carried the ^^ Greeks
Phoenician alphabet from the Mediterranean eastward through
Asia to India (§ 205), so now the Phoenicians themselves carried
it through the Mediterranean westward to Europe. The Greeks
whom we have seen crowding around the Phoenician ships often
found the Phoenicians handling bits of pale-yellow paper, on
which were written bills and lists of merchandise in strange
black signs. These the Greeks at first viewed with misgivings,
as mysterious and dangerous symbols. One of their ancient
songs of this age speaks of them as " baneful signs." Here
and there a Greek merchant, thumbing the Phoenician trades-
man's papyrus bills, finally learned the alphabet in which they
were written, and slowly began to note down Greek words
spelled with Phoenician letters.

Here the Greeks early displayed the mental superiority 403. Greeks
which, as we shall soon discover, they possessed. They noticed perfect Phoe-
that there were no Phoenician letters standing for vowels. be?by adding
Thev also noticed in the Phoenician alphabet a few letters vowels (about

■^ 900 B.C.)

representing consonants which did not exist in Greek speech.
These letters they began to use for the Greek vowels (Fig. 160;
cf. columns I and II). They thus took the final step in the
process of devising a complete system of alphabetic writing.
It slowly spread among the Greek states, beginning in Ionia.
For a long time it remained only a convenience in business and
administration. For centuries the nobles, unable to read or write,
continued to regard writing with misgivings. But even the
painters of pottery jars had learned to use it by 700 B.C., when
we find it. on their decorated vases (see headpiece, p. 282).
Shordy after this it was common among all classes. Literature
nevertheless long remained an oral matter and was much
slower than business to resort to writing.

The Greek children, in learning to read, used for the letters
the same names which had been employed in Phoenicia. The

2/2

Ancient Times

Greeks, not knowing what these strange names meant, altered
them somewhat; but the Greek children began to pronounce

the foreign names
of the letters in the
fixed order already
settled in Phoenicia,
saying "Alpha, beta,"
etc. (instead of
"Aleph,beth,"etc.)
(§ 401). As a child
of to-day is said
to be learning his
A B C's, so the
Greek child learned
his Alpha Beta's,
and thus arose our
word " alphabet."
The word "alpha-
bet," therefore, should
remind us of the
great debt we owe
to the Orient, and
especially to the
Phoenicians, for the
priceless gift of
alphabetic writing.
For the Phoenician
alphabet spread from
Greece to Italy and
at last throughout
Europe. Indeed,
every alphabet of the
civilized world has
descended from the
Phoenician alphabet

III

< s

'it

S 3

F.V.U

...

E.H

...

TH.PH

K.KH

N/H1

U/^

■?

...

Fig. 160. Table showing how the

Phcenician Letters passed through

Greek and Latin Forms to reach

their Present English Forms*

Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 273

Along with the alphabet, the equipment for using it — that is, 405. Oriental
pen, ink, and paper — for the first time came into Europe. Paper the words
also brought in with it its oriental names. For the Greeks L'^^^fe,"^"^
received from abroad the vjovd papyros, designating the Egyp-
tian paper on which they wrote, and we remember that this
word has in its English form become "paper" (see § 58).
Much of the papyrus used by the Greeks was delivered to them
by Phoenician merchants from Byblos, a famous Phoenician city.
Just as we apply the word " china " to a kind of table ware
which first came to us from China, so the Greeks often called
papyrus byblos after the Phoenician city from which it came.
Thus when they began to write books on rolls of such paper
(Fig. 191) they called them biblia. It is from this term that
we received our word " Bible " (literally " book " or " books ").
Hence the English word " Bible," once the name of a Phoenician
city, is another living evidence of the origin of books and the
paper of which they are made in the ancient Orient, from which
the Greeks received so much.

Section 41. Greek Warriors and the Hero Songs

The Greek nobles of this age loved war and were devoted 406. The

to fighting and plundering. It was a frequent sight to see the of "ffe Greek

Greek warrior waving farewell to his family before the pillared J[fe A^ig^of

porch of his home, as he mounted the waiting chariot and rode the Kings
forth to battle. The vase-painters have often left us pictures

* Column I contains the Phoenician alphabet made up exclusively of
consonants (§ 400). The Phoenicians wrote from right to left, and
hence the Greeks at first wrote in the same direction. The names of
the warriors in the vase-painting (headpiece, p. 263) are several of them
written in this way; hence column II shows letters like B "backward,"
as we say. The Greeks then gradually changed and wrote from left to
right, and the next column (HI) shows the letters facing as they do in
otir present alphabet (see B in column III). The transition from these
later forms of the Greek letters (column III) to the Latin forms (col-
umn IV) was very easy, and the Latin forms hardly differed from those
which we still use (column V).

274 Ancient Times

of such warriors (headpiece, p. 263). While their protective
armor was of bronze, their weapons were at this time com-
monly of iron, although bronze weapons still lingered on, and
in their tales of the great wars of the past the Greeks still told
how the heroes of older days fought with bronze weapons.

407. Battle It was Only men of some wealth who possessed a fighting
toms of war Outfit like this. They were the leading warriors. The ordinary
oftheKmgs ^roops, lacking armor, were of little consequence in battle,

which consisted of a series of single combats, each between
two heroes. Their individual skill, experience, and daring won
the battle, rather than the discipline of drilled masses. The
victor seized his fallen adversary's armor and weapons; and
having fastened the naked body of the vanquished to his
chariot, he dragged it triumphantly across the field, only to
expose it to be devoured by birds of prey and wild animals.
There was thus many a savage struggle to rescue the body of
a fallen hero (headpiece, p. 263). When a Greek town was
captured, its unhappy people were slaughtered or carried away
as slaves, and its houses plundered and burned. There was
savage joy in such treatment of the vanquished, and such deeds
were thought to increase the fame and glory of the victors.

408. Rise of Men delighted to sing of valiant achievements on the field of
battle and to tell of the stirring deeds of mighty heroes. In the
pastures of Thessaly, where the singer looked up at the cloud-
veiled summit of Mount Olympus (Fig. 153), the home of the
gods, there early grew up a group of such songs telling many
a story of the feats of gods and heroes, the earliest literature
of the Greeks. Into these songs were woven also vague memo-
ries of remote wars which had actually occurred, especially the
war in which the Greeks had "captured and destroyed the splen-
did city of Troy (§375 and Fig. 151). Probably by 1000 B.C.
some of these songs had crossed to the coasts and islands of
Ionia on the Asiatic side of the ^gean Sea.

Here arose a class of professional bards who graced the
feasts of king and noble with songs of battle and adventure

the hero
songs

Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 275

recited to the music of the harp. Framed in exalted and 409. The
ancient forms of speech, and rolling on in stately measures,^ singers
these heroic songs resounded through many a royal hall — the
oldest literature born in Europe. After the separate songs had
greatly increased in number, they were finally woven together
by the bards into a con-
nected whole — a great epic
cycle especially clustering
about the traditions of the
Greek expedition against
Troy. They were not the
work of one man, but a
growth of several centuries
by generations of singers,
some of whom were still
living even after 700 B.C.
It was then that they were
first written down.

Among these ancient sing- |^|Bi^^^^^^^^^^^^HH 410. Homer
ers there seems to have
been one of great fame
whose name was Homer
(Fig. 161). His reputation
was such that the composi-
tion of the whole cycle of
songs, then much larger than
the remnant which has come
down to us, was attributed
to him. Then as the Greeks

Fig. 161. An Ideal Portrait of
Homer

This head, from the Boston Museum
of Fine Arts, is a noble example of
the later Greek sculptor's ability to
create an ideal portrait of a poet
whom he had never seen. Such work
was unknown in the archaic days of
Greece; it was produced in the
Hellenistic Age

themselves later discerned the impossibility of Homer's author-
ship of them all, they credited him only with the Iliad,^ the
story of the Greek expedition against Troy ; and the Odyssey,

1 These were in hexameter ; that is, six feet to a line. This Greek verse is the
oldest literary form in Europe.

2 So named after Ilium, the Greek name of Troy.

276

Ancient Times

411. The

Homeric
songs our
earliest liter-
ary record of
the Greeks

or the tale of the wanderings of the hero Odysseus on his
return from Troy. These are the only two series of songs that
have entirely survived, and even the ancient worid had its
doubts about the Homeric authorship of the Odyssey.

These ancient bards not only gave the world its greatest epic
in the Iliad, but they were, moreover, the earliest Greeks to put
into permanent literary form their thoughts regarding the world
of gods and men. At that time the Greeks -had no other sacred
books, and the Homeric songs became the veritable Bible of
Greece. They gave to the disunited Greeks a common litera-
ture and the inspiring belief that they had once all taken part
in a common war against Asia.

412. The
Homeric
songs and
Greek re-
ligion

413. Primi-
tive Greek
religion
before the
Homeric
songs

Section 42. The Beginnings and Early
Development of Greek Religion

■ Just as devout Hebrews were taught much about their God
by the beautiful tales of Him in the narrative of the great
Unknown Historian (§ 302), so the wonderful Homeric songs
brought vividly before the Greeks the life of the gods. Homer
became the religious teacher of the Greeks. To us too he reveals
a great chapter in the story of Greek religion. For like that of
the Hebrews, the religion of the Greeks was a slow growth,
passing gradually from a low stage to ever higher and nobler
beliefs. There was, therefore, a chapter of Greek religion
earlier than the Homeric songs. Let us look for a moment at
the religion of Greece before the Homeric songs.

Every Greek, like all primitive men, once thought, that the
trees and springs, the stones and hilltops, the birds and beasts,
were creatures possessed of strange and uncanny powers. He
thought there was such a spirit in the dark recesses of the
earth which made the grain sprout and the trees flourish; in
the gloomy depths of the waters also, he believed there dwelt a
like spirit which swayed the great sea ; while still another ruled
the far sweep of the overhanging sky. As the Greek peasant,

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Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 277

terrified by the jagged lightning and the rolling thunder, or
grateful for the gently falling rain, looked up into the misty
cloudland of the sky, he often saw the solitary eagle soaring
across the vast and lonely expanse. To him the lofty, mysteri-
ous bird seemed to be the mighty spirit of the sky, who dwelt
there and in his wrath smote the great trees with fire, or in
kinder moods sent down the refreshing rain. Thus to some
Greeks the sky spirit seemed to be an eagle.

Each such spirit, friendly or hostile, dwelt in a limited region, 414. The rise
and it was believed possible to gain his favor or avoid his anger andTits^cS-
by simple gifts, especially food. The earth spirit might be ^^'"^
reached by slaying a sheep and letting the blood flow into the
earth ; while the sky spirit would be won by burning a thigh
of the sheep so that its odor might rise to the sky with the
soaring smoke. Thus these spirits of the world around the
early Greeks became gods and goddesses, and thus arose
worship with its sacred customs and usages. There were no
temples or houses of worship, and all the simple usages of
religion went on out of doors in a grove or in the open air
in the court of the house.

We remember that the Hebrews never lost their belief in 415. The
their great God Yahveh, whom they brought with them into zeus^theSky-
the land of Palestine ; and so the Greeks likewise brousrht ^^^ ^"*° *^^ ,

° iEgean world

into Greece various ideas of the great Sky-god whom they
had already worshiped in the old days on the grasslands. He
had different names ; in one valley they called him " Rain-
giver," in another "Thunderbolt" (§ 413). But he was finally
known to all as Zeus, which was simply the Greek form of
an old word for "sky" in the language of the Indo-European
parent people. He became the highest god among all the
numerous gods and goddesses revered by the Greeks.

But Greek religion continued to grow after the Greeks had 416. Divini-
reached the ^gean world. Here they found the ^geans wor- ^gean^orld
shiping the great earth spirit, the Earth-Mother, or the Great accepted by
Mother, who made the earth bring forth her grain and fruit

278

Ancient Times

417. The
gods gain
human form ;
surviving
traces of old
animal forms

418. Zeus
and the dwell-
ing of the
gods on
Mount
Olympus ;
Apollo

as the food of man (headpiece, p. 221). From the ^Egeans the
Greeks learned to revere her also, so that she became one of the
great goddesses of Greek religion. The Greeks thus accepted
the gods and goddesses whom they found in the ^gean world,
just as many of the Hebrews accepted the Canaanite Baals
which they found already in Palestine (§ 300).

The Homeric songs, as we have said, reveal to us a second
chapter in Greek religion, when the Greeks were gaining higher
ideas about their gods. To be sure, even Homer has here and
there an ancient reference which betrays their earlier animal
forms, as when he speaks of a goddess as " owl-faced " or
even " cow-faced." Likewise the Satyrs, merry spirits of the
forest, always had goat's hoofs and horns ; while the Centaurs
were men with the bodies of horses. But those nature spirits,
which gained a high place as gods and goddesses, appeared in
the Homeric songs as entirely human in form and in qualities.
Of course they possessed more power than mortals, and at the
same time they enjoyed the gift of immortality.

In the Homeric songs and in the primitive tales about the
gods, which we call myths, the Greeks heard how the gods
dwelt iji veiled splendor among the clouds on the summit of
Mount Olympus. There, in his cloud palace, Zeus the Sky-god,
with the lightning in his hand, ruled the gods like an earthly
king. Each of the gods controlled as his own a realm of nature
or of the affairs of men. Apollo, the Sun-god, whose beams
were golden arrows, was the deadly archer of the gods. But
he also shielded the flocks of the shepherds and the fields of
the plowman, and he was a wondrous musician. Above all he
knew the future ordained by Zeus and could, when properly
consulted, tell anxious inquirers what the future had in store
for them. These qualities gave him a larger place in the hearts
of all Greeks than Zeus himself, and in actual worship he
became the most belbved god of the Greek world.

Athena, the greatest goddess of the Greeks, seems in the
beginning to have ruled the air, and swayed the destroying

Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 279

tempests that swept the Greek lands. Such power made her 419. Athena,

a warrior goddess, and the Greeks loved to think of her with of Greer^

shining weapons, protecting the Greek cities. But she held out ^^^^^^

her protecting hand over them also in times of peace, as the

potters shaped their jars, the smiths wrought their metal, or

the women wove their wool. Athena too had brought them.

the olive tree, as they believed, and thus she became the wise

and gracious protectress of the peaceful life of industry and

art. Of all her divine companions she was the wisest in

counsel, and an ancient tale told how she had been bom in

the very brain of her father Zeus, from whose head she sprang

forth full-armed. . As the divine foster mother of all that was

best in Greek life, she was the loveliest of the protecting

powers which the quick and sensitive imagination of the

Greeks felt everywhere watching over the life and work of

men. These three then, Zeus, Apollo, and Athena, became

the leading divinities of the Greek world.

At the same time a further group of ancient nature spirits 420. Posei-
had risen to be great gods, each controlling some special Dionysus, '
realm. In a brazen palace deep under the waters, Poseidon ^^emls'
ruled the sea. The ancient Earth-Mother, whom they called Hera, and

Aphrodite

Demeter, still brought forth the produce of the soil. At the
same time they looked also to another earth god, Dionysus, for
the fruit of the grapevine, and they rejoiced in the wine which
he gave them. An old moon spirit had now become Hermes
the messenger of the gods, with winged feet, doing the bidding
of the gods, but he was also the patron of the intercourse of
men, and hence the god of trade and commerce. Some of the
Greeks, however, in the old days, seeing the moon above the
forest margin, had believed it to be a goddess, a divine huntress
riding through the forests at night. They called her Artemis.
Others, however, had fancied the moon to belong in the sky as
the wife of Zeus, whom they called Hera, and she became the
protectress of marriage. The Semitic goddess of love, whom
we have met on the Fertile Crescent as Ishtar (§ 191), had

28o

Ancient Times

421. The
Greek gods
at first show
human de-
fects of
character

422. Greek
beliefs about
the dead

now passed over from the Syrian cities by way of Cyprus,
to become likewise the Greek goddess of love, whom the
Greeks called Aphrodite.

All these divinities and some others less important, the
Greeks now pictured in human form. It was but natural, too,
that they should be thought of as possessing human traits.
Homer pictures to us the family quarrels between the august
Zeus and his wife Hera, just as such things must have occurred
in the household life of the Greeks, and certainly in a manner
absurdly undignified for such exalted divinities. The Greeks
thought of the gods therefore as showing decidedly human
defects of character. They practiced all sorts of deceit and
displayed many other human frailties. Such gods were not
likely to require anything better in the character of men.
Religion was therefore not yet an influence leading to good
conduct and right character. In this particular, then, the
Greeks were passing through an early stage of an uncom-
pleted development, just such as we have found in the civili-
zations of the Orient.

One reason why the Greeks did not yet think that the gods
required right conduct of men was their notion of life after
death. They believed that all men passed at death into a
gloomy kingdom beneath the earth (Hades), where the fate of
good men did not differ from that of the wicked. Here ruled
Pluto as king, and his wife, the goddess Persephone. As a
special favor of the gods, the heroes, men of mighty and god-
like deeds, were endowed with immortality and permitted to
enjoy a life of endless bliss in the beautiful Elysian Fields, or
the Islands of the Blest, somewhere in the Far West, toward
the unexplored ocean. The Greeks seem to have brought with
them from their earlier wanderings the custom of burning their
dead. They continued this custom on reaching Greece, but
they adopted also the ^gean usage of preserving the body as
in Egypt and burying it. The primitive notion that the dead
must be furnished with food and drink still survived. The

Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 281

tombs of the ancestors thus became sacred places where gifts of
food and drink were regularly brought and offered to the dead.

Every household in the little Greek towns felt that the safety 423. Lack of
of the house was in the hands of Hestia, the goddess of the of priest's
hearth. But in the Age of the Kings the symbols of the great
gods Werd set up in every house, while in the dwelling of the
king there was a special room which served as a kind of shrine
for them. There was also an altar in the forecourt where sacri-
fices could be offered under the open sky (Fig. 144). In so far
as the gods had any dwellings at all, we see that they were in
the houses of men, and there probably were no temples as yet.
Here and there in some communities men were to be found
who were thought to possess rare knowledge of the desires of
the gods. As these men were more and more often consulted
by those who felt ignorant of the proper ceremonies of sacri-
fice and worship, such men gradually became priests,

QUESTIONS

Section 39. What important metal came in at the rise of Greek
civilization? What had happened to the arts and crafts of the
yEgeans? Did the Greeks possess any craftsmen.? What do you
think of the horses on the Greek vase of the Age of the Kings.'*
Compare it with Middle Stone Age carving? From whom did the
Greeks chiefly buy manufactured products? What can you tell
about this commerce? What did it teach the Greeks?

Section 40. What else did the Phcenicians bring in besides
manufactured goods? Tell about the Phoenician alphabet. How did
it reach Greece? What is the origin of the word "alphabet"?
How far has the Phoenician alphabet spread ?

Section 41. Describe early Greek arms and warfare. What was
the relation of valiant deeds and song ? Around what event did such
songs cluster? Tell of Homer and the poems attributed to him.

Section 42. How did the Homeric songs affect religion? What
can you say of Greek religion before the Homeric songs arose?
Did the Greeks bring in some gods when they entered Greece?
Name the leading Greek divinities, and tell something of each.
Discuss Greek beliefs about the dead ; customs and places of worship.

CHAPTER XI

THE AGE OF THE NOBLES AND GREEK EXPANSION IN
THE MEDITERRANEAN

Section 43. The Disappearance of the Kings
AND THE Leadership of the Nobles

We have seen Greek civilization beginning under oriental
influences. In its political development, however, the Greek
world showed striking differences from what we have seen
in the Orient. There we watched the early city-states finally

Note. The headpiece above is of an early Greek sea fight in the days of the
kings. This Greek vase-painting shows us the Greek nobles in the days when
they were taking to the water as pirates (§ 431). The warriors are armed as on
land (see headpiece, p. 263). As to the model of the ships, see Fig. 162. Aris-
tonothos, the artist who made this vase-painting, has inserted his name over the
standard at the right, in the lower row, where the letters run to the right and drop
down. It reads " Aristonothos made it." This is not only the earliest-signed vase,
but is likewise the earliest-signed work of art, crude though it may be, in Europe.
It shows us that the Greek artist was gaining increasing pride in his work, and
it. is one of the earliest signs of individuality in Greek history about 700 B.C.

282

. Other
uences

The Age of the Nobles 283

uniting into two large and powerful nations, one on the Nile
and another on the Two Rivers. In Greece, however, there
were influences which tended to prevent such a union of the
Greeks into one nation. In the first place the country was cut
up by mountain ridges and deep bays, so that the different
communities were quite separated. The cities of Greece were
likewise separated from their kindred in the islands and in
Asia Minor.

Furthermore, no recollection of their former unity on the 425
grasslands survived, even in their oldest traditions. They had operating
now lived so long in separated communities that they had ^&j^JJ^^5 P°^^^^'
developed permanent local habits and local dialects, as differ-
ent as those of North and South Germany or even more
different than those between our own Louisiana and New
England. The various Greek communities thus displayed such
intense devotion to their own town and their own local gods
that a union of all the Greek city-states into one nation, such
as we have seen in the Orient, failed to take place. As a result
of these separative influences we find in Greece after 1000 B.C.
scores of little city-states such as we have already described
(§ 390). Not only did the islands and the Greek city-states
of Asia Minor fail to unite, but on the island of Crete alone
there were more than fifty such small city-states.

Four regions on the mainland of Greece, each forming a 426. The
pretty clearly outlined geographical whole, like the peninsula Ar"gos"and^'
of Laconia or that of Attica (see map, p. 264), permitted the ^P^*^
union of city-states into a larger nation. The oldest of these
four nations seems to have been Argos (map, p. 264). In this
plain the town of Argos subdued the ancient strongholds of
Mycenae and Tiryns (Figs. 144 and 145) and others in the vicin-
ity, forming the nation of Argos and giving its name to the plain
(Plate III, p. 276). In the same way the kings of Sparta con-
quered the two peninsulas on the south of them and finally also
the land of the Messenians on the west. The two kingdoms of
Argos and Sparta thus held a large part of the Peloponnese.

284

Ancient Times

/l^*l. Athens
and Thebes

428. Internal
development
of the Greek
state con-
trasted with
the Orient

429. The
Greek state
and the
struggle
toward
democracy

430. Rise
of a noble
class, the
eupatrids

In the Attic peninsula, likewise, the little city-kingdoms were
slowly absorbed by Athens, which at last gained control of the
entire peninsula. On the northern borders of Attica the region
of Boeotia fell under the leadership of Thebes, but the other
Boeotian cities were too strong to be wholly subdued. Boeotia,
therefore, did not form a nation but a group of city-states in
alliance, with Thebes at the head of the alliance. Elsewhere
no large and permanent unions were formed. Sparta and
Athens, therefore, led the most important two unions among
all the Greeks. Let it be borne in mind that such a nation
remained a city-state in spite of its increased territory. The
nation occupying the Attic peninsula was called Athens, and
every peasant in Attica was called an Athenian. The city
government of Athens covered the whole Attic peninsula.

In the matter of governing such a little city-state the Greeks
about 750 B.C. entered upon a new stage of their development,
which was again very different from that which we have found
in the Orient. However discontented the common people of
an oriental state might become, their discontent never accom-
plished more than the overthrow of one king and the enthrone-
ment of another. The office of king was never abolished, nor
did any other form of government than that of monarchy ever
arise in the ancient East (§322).

Among the Greeks, too, the common people struggled for
centuries to better their lot. As we shall see, this long and
bitter struggle finally resulted in giving the people in some
Greek states so large a share in governing that the form of
the government might be called democracy. This is a word
of Greek origin, meaning " the rule of the people," and the
Greeks were the first people of the ancient world to gain it.

The cause of this struggle was not only the corrupt rule
of the kings but also the oppression of the nobles. We have
watched these men of wealth buying the luxuries of the
Phoenician merchants. They now stood in the way, opposing
the rights of the peasants. By fraud, unjust seizure of lands,

The Age of the Nobles 285

union of families in marriage, and many other influences, the
strong men of ability and cleverness were able to enlarge their
lands. Thus there had arisen a class of hereditary nobles —
large landholders and men of wealth, called eupatrids.

Their fields stretched for some miles around the city and 431- Politi-

. , , . .„ T 1 1 11- cal and mili-

its neighbormg villages. In order to be near the kmg or tary power of
secure membership in the Council (§ 385) and control the ^^^"P^*^" ^
government, these men often left their lands and lived in the
city. Such was the power of the eupatrids that the Council
finally consisted only of men of this class. Wealthy enough
to buy costly weapons, with leisure for continual exercise in
the use of arms, these nobles had also become the chief pro-
tection of the State in time of war (§407). They were also
continual marauders on their own account. As they grew
more and more accustomed to the sea (headpiece, p. 282), they
coasted from harbor to harbor, plundering and burning, and
returned home laden with rich spoil. Piracy at last became the
common calling of the nobles, and a great source of wealth.

Thus grew up a sharp distinction between the city com- 432. Misery
munity and the peasants living in the country. The country ness of the
peasant was obliged to divide the family lands with his brothers. P^^^ants
His fields were therefore small, and he was poor. He went
about clad in a goatskin, and his labors never ceased. Hence
he had no leisure to learn the use of arms, nor any way to
meet the expense of purchasing them. He and his neighbors
were therefore of small account in war (§ 407). Indeed, he
was fortunate if he could struggle on and maintain himself
and family from his scanty fields. Many of his neighbors sank
into debt, lost their lands to the noble class, and themselves
became day laborers for more fortunate men, or, still worse,
sold themselves to discharge their debts and thus became
slaves. These day laborers and slaves had no political rights
and were not permitted to vote in the Assembly.

If the peasant desired to exert any influence in government,
he was obliged to go up to the city and attend the Assembly

286 Ancient Times

of the people there. When he did so, he found but few of
his fellows from the countryside gathered there — a dingy
group, clad in their rough goatskins. The powerful Council
in beautiful oriental raiment (§§ 394 and 395) was backed by the
whole class of wealthy nobles, all trained in war and splendid
in their glittering weapons. Intimidated by the powerful nobles,
the meager Assembly, which had once been a muster of all the
weapon-bearing men of the tribe, became a feeble gathering of
a few peasants and lesser townsmen, who could gain no greater
recognition of their old-time rights than the poor privilege of
voting to concur in the actions already decided upon by the
king and the Council. The peasant returned to his litde farm
and was less and less inclined to attend the Assembly at all.
The It was, however, not alone the people whose rights the

nobles were disregarding ; for they also began to consider them-
selves the equals of the king, whose chief support in war they
were. The king could not carry on a war without them or
control the state without their help. By 750 B.C. the office
of the king was in some states nothing more than a name.
While the king was in some cases violently overthrown, in
most states the nobles established from among themselves cer-
tain elective officers to take charge of matters formerly con-
trolled by the king. Thus in Athens they appointed a noble to
be leader in war, while another noble was chosen as " archon,"
or ruler, to assist the king in attending to the increasing busi-
ness of the State. Thus the Athenian king was gradually but
peacefully deprived of his powers, until he became nothing
more than the leader of the people in religious matters. In
Sparta the power of the king was checked by the appointment
of a second king, and on this plan Sparta continued to retain
her kings. Elsewhere in the century, between 750 and 650 b.c.,
the kingship quite generally disappeared, although it lingered
on in some states until long after this time. The result of the
political and social struggle was thus the triumph of the nobles,
who were henceforth in control in many states.

The Age of the Nobles 287

With the disappearance of the king, the royal castle (Fig. 1 44) 435. Survival
was of course vacated. As it fell into decay, the shrines and in the old
holy places which it contained (§ 423) were still protected and Palaces
revered as religious buildings, and, as we shall see in discussing
architecture, they became temples. In this way the castle of the
ancient Attic kings on the citadel mount, called the Acropolis
of Athens (Figs. 182 and 183), was followed by the famous
temples there.

Section 44. Greek Expansion in the Age of
THE Nobles

The Age of the Nobles witnessed another great change in 43(5. Begin-
Greek life. Sea-roving and piracy, as we have seen (§ 431), were meS^and^"^
common among the nobles. At length, as the Greek merchants shipbuilding

'^ *^ ' among the

gradually took up sea trade, the demand for ships led the Greek Greeks
mechanics to undertake shipbuilding. They built their new craft
on Phoenician models (see Fig. 162, ^ and B), the only ones with
which they were acquainted. When the Phoenician merchants
entered the ^Egean harbors they now found them more and
more occupied by Greek ships. Especially important was the
traffic- between the Greek cities of the Asiatic coast on the east
and Attica and Euboea on the European side. Among the
Asiatic Greeks it was the Ionian cities which led in this com-
merce. The Y^'gean waters gradually grew familiar to the
Greek communities, until the sea routes became far easier lines
of communication than roads through the same number of
miles of forest and mountains (§ 330).

The oppressive rule of the nobles, and the resulting impover- 437. Greek
ishment of the peasants, was an important influence, leading the Black Sea
the Greek farmers to seek new homes and new lands beyond
the ^gean world. Greek merchants were not only trafficking
with the northern ^gean, but their vessels had penetrated the
great northern sea, which they called the " Pontus," known to
us as the Black Sea (see map, p. 288). Their trading stations

288

Ancient Times

among the descendants of the Stone Age peoples in these
distant regions offered to the discontented farmers of Greece
plenty of land with which to -begin life over again. Before
600 B.C. they girdled the Black Sea with their towns and settle-
ments, reaching the broad grainfields along the lower Danube,
and the iron mines of the old Hittite country on the south-
eastern coast of the Black Sea (§ 360). But no such de-
velopment of Greek genius took place in this harsher climate

A B

Fig. 162. An Early Greek Ship and the Phcenician Ship
after which it was modeled

The earliest ships in the Mediterranean, those of Egypt, were turned
up at both ends (Fig. 41), and the early ^gean ships were copies of
this Egyptian model (Fig. 154). The Phoenicians, however, introduced
a change in the model, by giving their ships at the bow a sharp project-
ing beak below water. Such a Phoenician ship used by the Assyrian
king Sennacherib is shown here in a drawing from one of his palace
reliefs {B). The Greeks did not adopt the old ^Egean form, turned up
at both ends, but took up the Phcenician form with beaked prow, as
shown in the vase-paintings, from which the above drawing of an
eighth-century Greek ship {A) has been restored

of the North as we shall find in the ^gean. Not a single great
artist or writer ever came from the North. Although the Pontus
became the granary of Greece, it never contributed anything
to the higher life of the Greeks.

In the East, along the southern coasts of Asia Minor, Greek
expansion was stopped by the Assyrian Sennacherib (§ 214)
when he defeated a body of Greeks in Cilicia about 700 B.C., in
the earliest collision between the Hellenes and a great power of
the oriental world. The Greek colonies of Cyprus long remained

The Age of the Nobles 289

the easternmost outposts of the Greek world. In the South
they found a friendly reception in Egypt, and there in the Nile
Delta they were permitted to establish a trading city at Naucratis
(Mistress of Ships), the predecessor of Alexandria. West of
the Delta also they eventually founded Cyrene (map, p. 288).

It was the unknown West, however, which became the Amer- 439. Dis- k

ica of the early Greek colonists. Many a Columbus pushed his the vvest i^

ship into this strange region of mysterious dangers on the dis-
tant borders of the world, where the heroes were believed to
live in the Islands of the Blest. Looking westward from the
western coast of Greece the seamen could discover the shores
of the heel of Italy, only fifty miles distant. When they had
once crossed to it, they coasted around Sicily and far into the
West. Here was a new world. Although the Phoenicians were
already there (§ 397), its discovery was as momentous for the
Greeks as that of America for later Europe (see map, p. 288).

By 750 B.C. their colonies appeared in this new Western 440. Greek
world, and within a century they fringed southern Italy from the West— k
the heel to a point well above the instep north of Naples, so j^^^^™
that this region of southern Italy came to be known as " Great
Greece " (see map, p. 484). Here the Greek colonists looked
northward to the hills crowned by the rude settlements which
were destined to become Rome. They little dreamed that this in-
significant town would yet rule the world, making even the proud
cities of their homeland its vassals. As the Greeks were superior
in civilization to all the other dwellers in Italy, the civilized history
of that great peninsula begins with the advent of the Hellenes.
They first brought in such things as writing, literature, archi- j.

tecture, and art (Section 76, Fig. 219, and Plate VII, p. 560).

The Greek colonists crossed over also to Sicily (Plate VII), 441. Sicily
where they drove out the Phoenician trading posts except at Far West
the western end of the island, where the Phoenicians held their
own. These Greek colonists in the West shared in the higher
life of the homeland ; and Syracuse, at the southeast comer of
the Island of Sicily, became at one time the most cultivated,

290

Ancient Times

as well as the most powerful, city of the Greek world. At
Massilia (Marseilles), on the coast of later France, the Western
Greeks founded a town which controlled the trade up the
Rhone valley; and they reached over even to the Mediterranean
coasts of Spain, attracted by the silver mines of Tartessus.

Thus, under the rule of the nobles, the Greeks expanded till
they stretched from the Black Sea along the north shore of the
Mediterranean almost to the Atlantic. In this imposing move-
ment we recognize a part of the far outstretched western wing
of the Indo-European line (see § 243) ; but at the same time we
remember that in the Phoenician Empire of Carthage, the Semite
has likewise flung out his western wing along the southern
Mediterranean, facing the Indo-European peoples on the north
(Fig. 112 and § 397 ; see map, p. 288).

This wide expansion of Greeks and Phoenicians (§ 397)
tended at last to produce a great Mediterranean world. Was
the leading civilization in that Mediterranean world to be Greek,
springing from the Greeks and their colonies, or was it to be
oriental, carried by the Phoenician galleys and spread by their
far-reaching settlements ? That was the great question, and its
answer was to depend on how Greek civilization succeeded in
its growth and development at home in the ^gean, to which
we must now turn.

Section 45. Greek Civilization in the Age
OF THE Nobles

444. influ- We have already noticed the tendencies which kept the

toward?nity1 Greek states apart and prevented their union as a single
athletic nation (§ 421;). There were now, on the other hand, influ-

games V t- oy

ences which tended toward unity. Among such influences were
the contests in arms and the athletic games, which arose from
the early custom of honoring the burial of a hero with such
celebrations. In spite of the local rivalries at such contests,
a sentiment of unity was greatly encouraged by the celebration

The Age of the Nobles 291

and common management of these athletic games. They finally
came to be practiced at stated seasons in honor of the gods.
As early as 776 B.C. such contests were celebrated as public
festivals at Olympia.^ Repeated every four years, they finally
aroused the interest and participation of all Greece.

Religion also became a strong influence toward unity, be- 445. Greek
cause there were some gods at whose temples all the Greeks by Vdigkm?
worshiped. The different city-states therefore formed several /°JJ,p^1^-
religious councils, made up of representatives from the various tyonies)
Greek cities concerned. They came together at stated periods,
and in this way each city had a voice in such, joint management
of the temples. These councils were among the nearest ap-
proaches to representative government ever devised in the an-
cient world. The most notable of them were the council for
the control of the Olympic games, another for the famous
sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi (Fig. 172), and also the council
for the great annual feast of Apollo in the island of Delos.

These representatives spoke various Greek dialects at their 446. Greek
meetings. They could understand each other, however, just as "hered by
in our own land a citizen from Maine understands another from language
Louisiana, though they may laugh at each other's oddities of
speech. Their common language thus helped to bind together
the people of the many different Greek cities. A sentiment of
unity also arose under the influence of the Homeric songs
(§410) with which every Greek was familiar — a common
inheritance depicting all the Greeks united against the Asiatic
city of Troy (Fig. 151).

Thus bound together by ties of custom, religion, language, 447. Barba-
and common traditions, the Greeks gained a feeling of race n^Jlfgnes
unity, which set them apart from other races. They called all
men not of Greek blood " barbarians," not originally a term of
reproach for the non-Greeks. Then the Greek sense of unity
found expression in the first all-inclusive term for themselves.

1 Every schoolboy knows that these Olympic games have been revived in
modern times as an international project.

292 Ancient Times

They gradually came to call themselves " Hellenes," and found
pleasure in the belief that they had all descended from a com-
mon ancestor called Hellen. But it should be clearly understood
that this new designation did not represent a Greek nation or
state, but only the group of Greek-speaking peoples or states,
often at war with one another.

The lack of political unity evident in such wars was also very
noticeable in trade relations. No merchant of one city had any
legal rights in another city where he was not a citizen. Even
his life was not safe, for no city made any laws protecting the
stranger. He could secure protection only by appealing to the
old desert custom of " hospitality," after he had been received
by a friendly citizen as a guest. For the reception of any stran-
ger who might have no such friend to be his host, a city might
appoint a citizen to act as its official host. These primitive
arrangements are a revelation of the strong local prejudice of
each Greek city. The most fatal defect in Greek character was
the inability of the various states to forget their local differ-
ences and jealousies and to unite into a common federation or
great nation including all Greeks.^

In spite of oriental luxuries, like gaudy clothing and wavy
oriental wigs (§ 395), Greek life in the Age of the Nobles was
still rude and simple. The Greek cities of which we have been
talking were groups of dingy sun-dried-brick houses, with nar-
row wandering streets which we would call alleys. On the
height where the palace or castle of the king had once stood
was an oblong building of brick, like the houses of the town
below. In front it had a porch with a row of wooden posts, and
it was covered by a " peaked " roof with a triangular gable at
each end. This rude building was the earliest Greek temple.
As for sculpture in this age, the figure of a god consisted merely

1 We may recall here how slow were the thirteen colonies of America to sup-
press local pride sufficiently to adopt a constitution uniting all thirteen into a
nation. It was local differences similar to those among the Greeks which after-
war4 caused our Civil W&r.

The Age of the Nobles 293

of a wooden post with a rough-hewn head at the top. When
draped with a garment it could be made to serve its purpose.

While there were still very few who could read, there was 450. Rise of
here and there a man who owned and read a written copy of ture; moral
Homer. Men told their children quaint fables, representing the ^atrlotimi
animals acting like human creatures, and by means of these tales
with a moral made it clear what a man ought or ought not to
do. The Greeks were beginning to think about human conduct.
The old Greek word for virtue no longer meant merely valor in
war, but also kindly and unselfish conduct toward others. Duty
towards a man's own country was now beginning to be felt in
the sentiment we call patriotism. Right conduct, as it seemed
to some, was even required by the gods, and it was finally no
longer respectable for the nobles to practice piracy (§ 431).

Under these circumstances it was natural that a new litera- 451. Trans-
ture should arise, as the Greeks began to discuss themselves and u^erary inter-
their own conduct. The old Homeric sins^ers never referred to ^f- *° ^^

° present

themselves ; they never spoke of their own lives. They were
absorbed in describing the valiant deeds of their heroes who
had died long before. The heroic world of glorious achievement
in which the vision of these early singers moved had passed
away, and with it passed their art. Meanwhile the problems of
\hQ present began to press hard upon the minds of men; the
peasant farmer's distressing struggle for existence (see § 432)
made men conscious of very present needs. Their own lives
became a great and living theme.

The voices that once chanted the hero songs therefore died 452. Hesiod
away, and now men heard the first voice raised in Europe on earliest cry
behalf of the poor and the humble. Hesiod, an obscure farmer for social

^ ' justice in

under the shadow of Mount Helicon in Boeotia, sang of the Europe (750-

dreary and hopeless life of the peasant — of his own life as
he struggled on under a burden too heavy for his shoulders.
We even hear how his brother Persis seized the lands left by
their father, and then bribed the judges to confirm him in
their possession.

700 B.C.)

294 Ancient Times

This earliest European protest against the tyrannies of
wealthy town life was raised at the very moment when across
the comer of the Mediterranean the once nomad Hebrews were
passing through the same experience (see §§ 303-304). The
voice of Hesiod raising the cry for social justice in Greece
sounds like an echo from Palestine. But we should notice that
in Palestine the cry for social justice resulted finally in a religion
of brotherly kindness, whereas in Greece it resulted in demo-
cratic institutions^ the rule of the people who refused longer to
submit to the oppressions of the few and powerful. In the n/=^xt
chapter we shall watch the progress of the struggle by which
the rule of the people came about.

QUESTIONS

Section 43. Were the geographical influences in Greece favor-
able to a political union of all Greeks .? How many important unions
arose ? Name them and describe the leading two. How did the polit-
ical development of the Orient differ from that of Greece ? What is
a democracy? Where did democracies first arise? What was the atti-
tude of the nobles toward democracy ? Describe their political power ;
their military power. What was the situation of the peasants ? What
happened to the Assembly? What happened to the kings? What
became of the shrines in the palace ?

Section 44. On what models did the Greeks build their first
ships ? Tell about Greek colonization in the North ; in the East ;
in the South ; in the West. What competing race had already col-
onized in the West ? To what extent had the world of sea commerce
thus expanded?

Section 45. Discuss athletic games as an influence toward unity.
How did religion favor Greek unity.? language? What names for
Greeks and non-Greeks arose ? What can you say about the attitude
of Greek cities toward Greeks who were not citizens ? Describe the
earliest Greek temples. Were literature and reading now common ?
What thoughts about conduct were arising? As men began to think
about themselves rather than the ancient heroes, what was the effect
upon literature? Tell about Hesiod. To what struggle were the feel-
ings of such men as Hesiod leading ?

CHAPTER XII

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE AGE OF
THE TYRANTS

Section 46. The Industrial and Commercial
Revolution

The remarkable colonial expansion of the Greeks, together 453^

Growth
, Greek

with the growth of industries in the home cities, led to profound commerce
changes. The new colonies not only had needs of their own, ^" ™ "^^
but they also had dealings with the inland, which finally opened
up extensive regions of Europe as a market for Greek wares.
The home cities at once began to meet this demand for goods

Note. The above headpiece shows us the ruins of the temple of Hera at
Olympia, the oldest temple in Greece. The remains of columns which surrounded
the outside of the building (cf. Fig. 185) are of different sizes and proportions ; for
they were inserted at different times to replace the old wooden ones with which
the temple was first built (§ 449). They are of the Doric style (Fig. 167). The
walls were of sun-dried brick (§ 449), and have therefore disappeared. In their
fall they covered up the magnificent statue of Hermes by Praxiteles (Fig. 187),
which was thus preserved until modem excavators found it.

295

296

Ancient Times

of all sorts. The Ionian cities led the way as formerly, but the
islands also, and finally the Greek mainland, felt the new im-
pulse. Corinth first (Fig. 163), and then Athens, began to share

Fig. 163. The Isthmus of Corinth, the Link between the
Peloponnesus and Northern Greece

The observer stands on the hills south of ancient Corinth (out of range
on the left) and looks northeastward along the isthmus, on both sides
of which the sea is visible. On the left (west) we see the tip of the Gulf
of Corinth (see map, p. 352), and on the right (east) the Saronic Gulf.
The commerce across this isthmus from the Orient to the "West made
the Gulf of Corinth an important center of traffic westward, and Corinth
early became a flourishing commercial city. Through this sole gateway of
the Peloponnesus (see map, p. 264) passed back and forth for centuries the
leading men of Greece, and especially the armies of Sparta, some
60 miles distant (behind the observer). The faint white line in the middle
of the isthmus is the modern canal — a cut from sea to sea, about 4 miles
long and nearly 200 feet deep at the crest of the watershed

in the increased Greek trade. Ere long the commercial fleets of
the Hellenes were threading their way along all the coasts of the
northern, western, and southeastern Mediterranean, bearing to

The Industrial Revolution

297

distant communities
Greek metal work,
woven goods, and pot-
tery. They brouglit
back either raw ma-
terials and foodstuffs,
such as grain, fish,
and amber, or fin-
ished products like
the magnificent uten-
sils in bronze from
the cities of the
Etruscans in north-
ern Italy (§787 and
Fig. 231). At the
yearly feast and mar-
ket on the island of
Delos the Greek
householder found
the Etruscan bronzes
of the West side by
side with the gay car-
pets of the Orient.

To satisfy the in-
creasing demands of
trade, and to meet
Phoenician competi-
tion, the Greek crafts-
men greatly improved
their work. During
the seventh century
Greek industries were
still unequal to those
of the Orient, but
after 600 B.C. the

Fig. 164. An Athenian Painted Vase
OF THE Early Sixth Century b.c.

This magnificent work (over 30 inches high)
was found in an Etruscan tomb in Italy (see
map, p. 484), whither it had been exported by
the Athenian makers in the days of Solon
(§§ 468 ff.). It is signed by the potter Ergo-
timos, who gave the vase its beautiful shape,
and also by the painter Clitias, whose skillful
hand executed the sumptuous painted scenes
extending in hands entirely around the vase.
On the wide distribution of the works of these
two artists see § 456. These decorations rep-
resent the final emancipation of the Greek
painter from oriental influences and the
triumph of his own imagination in depicting
scenes from Greek stories of the gods and
heroes. Before the end of this century (the
sixth) the vase-painters had begun to blacken
the whole vase and then to put on their paint-
ings in red on the black background. This
enabled them to add details in black within
the figures, and greatly improved their work
(see Fig. 170). The Greeks were now the best
draftsmen in the world. Note the progress
in two hundred years (compare above horses
9.nd those in Fig. 155)

454. Greek
industry be-
gins to shake
off oriental
influence

298

Ancient Times

455. Greeks
introduce
industrial
slave labor

Greeks began to surpass their oriental teachers. In Samos
they learned to make hollow bronze castings, like those of the
Egyptians. They painted pottery with their own decorative
scenes, taken from the lives of gods and men, and these more
and more displaced the rows of oriental figures, half animal,
half human (Fig. 164). Thus in industry Greece began to
emancipate herself from the Orient.

At the same time, growing trade obliged every Greek crafts-
man to enlarge his small shop — once, perhaps, only large
enough to supply the wants of a single estate. Unable to find
the necessary workmen, the proprietor who had the means
bought slaves, trained them to the work, and thus enlarged
his little stall into a factory with a score of hands. Henceforth
industrial slave labor became an important part of Greek life.

Athens entered the field of industry much later than the
Ionian cities, but when she did so, she won victories not less
decisive than her later triumphs in art, literature, philosophy,
or war. The potters early required an extensive quarter of the
town to accommodate their workshops (see plan, p. 352). The
Athenian factories must have assumed a size quite unprece-
dented in the Greek world, for of the painted Greek vases —
discovered by excavation — which are signed by the artist,
about half are found to have come from only six factories at
Athens. It 'is not a little impressive at the present day to see
the modern excavator opening tombs far toward the interior of
Asia Minor and taking out vases bearing the signature of the
same Athenian vase-painter whose name you may also read on
vases dug out of the Nile Delta in northern Africa, or taken
from tombs in the cemeteries of the Etruscan cities of Italy
(Fig. 164). We suddenly gain a picture of the Athenian manu-
facturer in touch with a vast commercial domain extending far
across the ancient world.

Soon the shipbuilder, responding to the growing commerce,
began to build craft far larger than the old "fifty-oar" gal-
leys. The new " merchantmen " were driven only by sails, an

The Industrial Revolution 299

Egyptian invention of ages before (Fig. 41). They were so large
that they could no longer be drawn up on the strand as before.
Hence sheltered harbors were necessary, and for the same
reason the anchor was now invented. The protection of such
merchant ships demanded more effective warships, and the dis-
tinction arose between a " man-o'-war," or battleship, and a
" merchantman." Corinth boasted the production of the first
decked warships, a great improvement, giving the warriors
above more room and better footing, and protecting the oars-
men below. For warships must be independent of the wind,
and hence they were still propelled by oars. The oarsmen were
arranged in three rows, three men on the same bench, each
man wielding an oar, and thus the power of an old " fifty-oar "
could be multiplied by three without much increasing the size
of the craft. These innovations were all in common use by
500 B.C. With their superior equipment on the sea, and the
marked improvement of their industries, the Hellenes were
soon beating the Phoenicians in the Mediterranean markets.

Meantime Greek business life had entered upon a new epoch 458. Precious
due to the introduction of coined money. From the peoples of ^^^ge^Sjf
inner Asia Minor the lonians had learned to use the precious *^ Orient

(700 B.C.)

metals by weight in making business payments after the orien-
tal manner (§ 189). The basis of weight was the Babylonian
"mina." Sixty such minas (pounds) made a talent, and a
talent of silver was worth about $1125. Not long after 700 B.C.,
the kings of Lydia in Asia Minor (see map, p. 264) began to
cut up silver into lumps of a fixed weight, small enough to be
of convenient size and value. These they stamped with some
symbol of the king or State to show that the State guaranteed
their value, and such pieces formed the earliest-known coins
(Fig. 165).

The Ionian cities soon took over this great convenience, and 459. Adop-
it quickly passed thence to the islands and the European agrb/the"'

Greeks. The Athenians divided the mina of silver into a hun- Greeks (earlj

seventh cen-

dred parts. A lump of silver weighing the hundredth part of tury b.c.)

300

Ancient Times

Fig. 165. Specimens ILLUSTRATING THE
Beginning of Coinage

a mina was worth from eighteen to
twenty cents. This became the ordi-
nary small unit of value, and it still
survives as such for large sections
of Europe in the French franc,
Italian lira, and Austrian krone, all
worth somewhat less than twenty
cents (cf. § 790). The Athenians
called this coin a drachma, meaning
a "handful," because it was equal
in value to a "handful" of small
change consisting of little rods of
iron or copper used by the common
people, like our cop-
per cents. Our Amer-
ican dollar is simply
five of these drachmas,
and the Athenians
themselves issued a
four-drachma piece
(Fig. 165, 4) which
served as their dol-
lar. The purchasing
power of a drachma
was in ancient times
very much greater
than in our day. For
example, a sheep cost
one drachma, an ox
five drachmas, and

These are rough lumps of silver such as

were long before used in the Orient (§ 189),

flattened by the pressure of the stamp. Two

of the examples (/ and 2) are marked by

the bench tool which held the lump while

the stamp was struck upon it. This defect

was slowly overcome, and the coins became

round as the stamp itself was made round

instead of square, i, both sides of a Lydian

coin (§ 458) (about 550 B.C.) ; 2, both sides of

a coin of the Greek island of Chios (500 B.C.),

showing how the Greeks followed the Lydian model (/) ; j, both sides of

a Carian coin of Cnidus (650-550 B.C.), an example of the square stamp ;

4, both sides of a four-drachma piece of Athens (sixth century B.C.),

bearing head of goddess Athena and an owl with olive branch (square

stamp). The inscription ^contains the first three letters of "Athens"

The Industrial Revolution 301

a landowner with an income of five hundred drachmas ($100)
a year was considered a wealthy man.

Greek wealth had formerly consisted of lands and flocks, 460. Rise of
but now men began to accumulate capital in money. Loans class*^
were made and the use of interest came in from the Orient.
The usual rate was 18 per cent yearly. Men who could never
have hoped for wealth as farmers were now growing rich. For
the growing industries and the commercial ventures on the seas
rapidly created fortunes among a class before obscure. There
arose thus a prosperous industrial and commercial middle class
who demanded a voice in the government. They soon became
a political power of much influence, and the noble class were
obliged to consider them. At the beginning of the sixth century
B.C. even a noble like Solon could say, " Money makes the man."

The prosperity we have sketched was still insufficient to 461. Greek
produce large cities as we now have them. Athens and Corinth estates
probably had about 25,000 inhabitants each. In spite of com-
mercial prosperity the Greeks were still dependent on agricul-
ture as their greatest source of income. But here again the
farms and estates were from our point of view very small.
The largest farms contained not over a hundred acres, while
a man who had fifty acres was classed among the rich.

Section 47. Rise of the Democracy and the
Age of the Tyrants

While the prosperous capitalistic class was thus arising, the 462. Decline
condition of the peasant on his lands grew steadily worse. His ^tiy^ ^^^^
fields were dotted with stones, each the sign of a mortgage,
which the Greeks were accustomed to mark in this way.
The wealthy creditors were foreclosing these mortgages and
taking the lands, and the unhappy owners were being sold
into foreign slavery or were fleeing abroad to escape such
bonds. The nobles in control did nothing as a class to imr
prove the situation ; on the contrary, they did all in their

302

Ancient Times

463. Power
of the people
increased by
prosperity of
the commer-
cial class and
by military
changes

464. Dis-
union among
nobles and
rise of
tyrants

465. The
tyrant and
public opin-
ion of his
office

power to take advantage of the helplessness of the peasants
and small farmers (see § 432).

But new enemies now opposed the noble class. In the first
place, the new men of fortune (§ 460) were bitterly hostile to
the nobles; in the second place, the improvement in Greek
industries had so cheapened all work in metal that it was
possible for the ordinary man to purchase weapons and a
suit of armor. Moreover, the development of tactics under
the leadership of the Spartans had produced close masses of
spearmen, each mass (phalanx) standing like an unbroken wall
throughout the battle (cf. Fig. 87). The war chariot of the
individual hero of ancient times could not penetrate such a
battle line. The. chariot disappeared and was seen only in
chariot races. These changes increased the importance of the
ordinary citizen in the army and therefore greatly increased the
power of the lower classes in the State.

At the same time the nobles were far from united. Serious
feuds between the various noble families often divided them
into hostile factions. The leader of such a faction among the
nobles often placed himself at the head of the dissatisfied people
in real or feigned sympathy with their cause. Both the peasants
and the new commercial class of citizens often rallied around
such a noble leader. Thus supported, he was able to over-
come and expel his rivals among the noble class and to gain
undisputed control of the State. In this way he became the
ruler of the State.

Such a ruler was in reality a king, but the new king differed
from the kings of old in that he had no royal ancestors and
had seized the control of the State by violence. The people
did not reverence him as of ancient royal lineage, and while
they may have felt gratitude to him, they felt no loyalty. The
position of such a ruler always remained insecure. The Greeks
called such a man a " tyrant," which was not at that time
a term of reproach, as it is with us. The word "tyranny"
was merely a term for the high office held by such a ruler.

The Industrial Revolution 303

Nevertheless, the instinctive feeling of the Greeks was that
they were no longer free under such a prince, and the slayer
of a tyrant was regarded as a hero and a savior of the people.

By 650 B.C. such rulers had begun to appear, but it was es- 466. Age of
pecially the sixth century (from 600 to 500 B.C.) which we may (sfxth^Sn-^
call the Age of the Tyrants. They arose chiefly in the Ionian turys.c.)
cities of Asia Minor and the islands; also Euboea, Athens,
Corinth, and the colonies of Sicily — that is, in all the progres-
sive Greek city-states where the people had gained power by
commercial prosperity. Their rise was one of the direct con-
sequences of the growing power of the people, and in spite
of public opinion about them, they were the first champions
of democracy. Such men as Periander of Corinth and Pisis-
tratus of Athens looked after the rights of the people, curbed
the nobles, gave great attention to public works like harbor
improvements, state buildings, and temples, and cultivated art,
music, and literature.

Hitherto all law, so long ago reduced to writing in the 467. Earliest
Orient (Fig. 93), had been a matter of oral tradition in Greece. Greek codes
It was very easy for a judge to twist oral law to favor the ^^^^^
man who gave him the largest present (§ 452). The people
were now demanding that the inherited oral laws be put into
writing (Fig. 166). After a -long struggle the Athenians se-
cured such a written code, arranged by a man named Draco,
about 624 B.C. It was an exceedingly severe code — so severe,
in fact, that the adjective " Draconic " has passed into our
language as a synonym for " harsh."

Meantime the situation in Athens was much complicated by 468. Foreign
hostilities with neighboring powers. The merchants of Megara of AShcns°"^
had seized the island of Salamis, overlooking the port of
Athens (Fig. 177). The loss of Salamis and the failure of the
nobles to recover it aroused intense indignation among the Athe-
nians. Then a man of the old family to which the ancient kings
of Athens had belonged, a noble named Solon, who had gained
wealth by many a commercial venture on the seas, roused his

304

Ancient Times

countrymen by fiery verses, calling upon the Athenians not to
endure the shame of such a loss. Salamis was recovered, and
Solon gained great popularity with all classes of Athenians.

^hSm

Fig. 1 66. Ruins of the Ancient Courthouse of Gortyna and
THE Early Greek Code of Laws engraved on its Walls

This hall at Gortyna in Crete, dating from the sixth century B.C., was
a circular building about 140 feet across, which served as a court-
house. If any citizen thought himself unjustly treated, he could appeal
to the great code engraved in twelve columns on the inside of the stone
wall of the building. It covers the curved surface of the wall for about
30 feet, but extends only as high as would permit it to be read easily.
It forms the longest Greek inscription now surviving. This code shows
a growing sense of justice toward a debtor and forbids a creditor to
seize a debtor's tools or furniture for debt ; this illustrates the tendency
among the Greeks in the age of Solon (§ 469)

469. Solon The result was Solon's election as archon (§ 434) in 594 b.c.

archSn- his ^^ was given full powcr to improve the evil condition of the

financial peasants. He declared void all mortgages on land and all

claims of creditors which endangered the liberty of a citizen.

The Industrial Revolution 305

But Solon was a true statesman, and to the demands of the
lower classes for a new apportionment of lands held by the
nobles he would not yield. He did, however, set a limit to
the amount of land which a noble might hold.

Solon also made a law that anyone who, like Hesiod (§ 452), 470. Solon's
had lost a lawsuit, could appeal the case to a jury of citizens of laws
over thirty years of age selected by lot. This change and some
others greatly improved a citizen's chance of securing justice.
Solon's laws were all written, and they formed the first Greek
code of laws by which all free men were given equal rights
in the courts. Some of these laws have descended to pur
own time and are still in force.

Furthermore, Solon proclaimed a new constitution which
gave to all a voice in the control of the State. It made but
few changes. It recognized four classes of citizens, graded
according to the amount of their income. The wealthy nobles
were the only ones who could hold the highest offices, and the
peasants were permitted to hold only the lower offices. The
government thus remained in the hands of the nobles, but
the humblest free citizen could now be assured of the right
to vote in the assembly of the people.

Solon is the first great Greek statesman of whom we obtain 472. Esti-
an authentic picture, chiefly through his surviving poems. The
leading trait of his character was moderation, combined with
unfailing decision. When all expected that he would make
himself " tyrant " he laid down his expiring archonship with-
out a moment's hesitation and left Athens for several years,
to give his constitution a fair chance to work.

Solon saved Attica from a great social catastrophe, and it 473. Failure
was largely due to his wise reforms that Athens achieved her work to^re-
industrial and commercial triumphs. But his constitution gave vent the rise

^ *^ of a tyrant

the prosperous commercial class no right to hold the leading in Attica
offices of government. They continued the struggle for power.
Hence Solon's work, though it deferred the humiliation, could
not save the Athenian State from subjection to the tyrant.

3o6

Ancient Times

4fi^. Pisis-
tratus, tyrant
of Athens

528 B.C.)

475. Fall of
the sons of
Pisistratus

476. The

reforms of
Clisthenes
reduce the
power of
the nobles

477. Ostra-
cism

Returning from exile, backed by an army of hired soldiers,
Pisistratus, a member of one of the powerful noble families,
finally held control of the Athenian State. He ruled with
great sagacity and success, and many of the Athenians gave
him sincere support. Having built a war fleet of probably forty-
eight ships, he seized the mouth of the Hellespont (Dardanelles).
This control of the gateway to the Black Sea proved of enor-
mous value to Athens in later days (§616). He carried
out many public improvements at Athens, and transferred to
the city the old peasant spring feast of Dionysus, from which
were yet to come the theater and the great dramas of Athens
(§ 484). Athenian manufactures and commerce flourished as
never before, and when Pisistratus died (in the same year as
Cyrus the Persian, 528 B.C.) he had laid a foundation to which
much of the later greatness of Athens was due.

In spite of their great ability, the sons of Pisistratus, Hip-
parchus and Hippias, were unable to overcome the prejudice of
the people against a ruler on whom they had not conferred
authority. One of the earliest exhibitions of Greek patriotism
is the outburst of enthusiasm at Athens when two youths, Har-
modius and Aristogiton (Fig. 1 69), at the sacrifice of their own
lives, struck down one of the tyrants (Hipparchus). Hippias,
the other one, was eventually obliged to flee, . Thus, shortly
before 500 b.c, Athens was freed from her tyrants.

The people were now able to gain new power against the
nobles by the efforts of Clisthenes, a noble friendly to the lower
classes. He broke up the old tribal divisions on the basis of
blood relationship, and established purely local lines of division.
He thus cut up the old noble clans and assigned the fragments
to different local divisions, where they were in the minority.
This prevented the nobles from acting together and broke
their power.

In order to avoid the rise of a new tyrant, Clisthenes estab-
lished a law that once a year the people might by vote declare
any prominent citizen dangerous to the State and banish him

The Industrial Revolution 307

for ten years. To cast his vote against a man, a citizen had
only to pick up one of the pieces of broken pottery lying
about the market place, write upon it the name of the citizen
to be banished, and deposit it in the voting urn. As such
a bit of pottery was called an " ostracon " (headpiece, p. 336),
to " ostracize " a man (literally to " potsherd " him) meant to
interrupt his political career by banishment. Although the
nobles were still the only ones to whom the high offices of
government were open, the possession of other forms of
wealth besides land gave a citizen important political rights,
and Athens had thus (about 500 B.C.) gained a form of gov-
ernment giving the people a high degree of power. The State
was in large measure a democracy.

Meantime Sparta also had greatly increased in power. The 478. Ex-
Spartans had pushed their military successes until they held sparta"?oun-
over a third of the Peloponnesian peninsula. The result was Nation of the
that long before 500 B.C. the Spartans had forced the neigh- "league"
boring states into a combination, the " Spartan league," which
included nearly the whole of the Peloponnese. As the leader of
this league, Sparta was the most powerful state in Greece. It
had no industries, and it therefore did not possess the prosper-
ous commercial class which had elsewhere done so much to over-
throw the nobles and bring about the rise of the tyrants. For
this and other reasons Sparta had escaped the rule of a tyrant.
While it had divided the power of its king by appointing two
kings to rule jointly, it was opposed to the rule of the people, and
it looked with a jealous eye on the rising democracy of Athens.

Section 48, Civilization of the Age of
THE Tyrants

Although the nobles of Athens had been forced to yield 479. The
much of their political power to the people, nevertheless, as we {inue^to^be
have seen, they still held the exclusive right to be elected to the Jhe social
important offices in the government. They continued also to letic games

3o8

Ancient Times

480. Edu-
cation

be the leaders in all those matters which we call social. They
created the social life of the time, and they were the prominent
figures on all public occasions. The multitudes which thronged
to the public games looked down at the best-bom youths of
Greece contesting for the prizes in the athletic matches (§ 444),
and the wealthier nobles put the swiftest horses into the chariot
races. To the laurel wreath which was granted the winner at
the Olympian games Athens added a prize of five hundred
drachmas when the winner was an Athenian. He was also
entitled to take his meals at tables maintained by the State.
Not seldom the greatest poets of the time, especially Pindar
(§ 482), celebrated the victors in triumphant verses.

In the matter of education, noble youths might be found
spending the larger part of the day practicing in the public
inclosure devoted to athletic exercises. To be sure, writing
was now so common that a young man could not afford to
be without it, and hence he submitted to some instruction in
this art — a discipline which he was probably very reluctant to
exchange for the applause of the idlers gathered around the
gymnastic training ground. The women had no share in either
the education or the social life of the men, and one of the great-
est weaknesses of Greek civilization was the very limited part
played by women in the life of the nation.

The education of the time was not complete without some in-
struction also in music. It was in the Age of the Tyrants that
the music of Greece rose to the level of a real art. A system of
writing musical notes, meaning for music what the alphabet meant
for literature, now arose. The flute had been brought from
Egypt to Crete in early times, and from the Cretans the Greeks
had received it Long a favorite instrument, it was now much
more cultivated, and one musician even wrote a composition for
the flute which was intended to tell the story of Apollo's fight
with the dragon of Delphi. The lyre, which formerly had but
four strings, was now made with eight, and compositions for the
lyre alone were popular. Either of these instruments might be

The Industrial Revolution 309

played as the accompaniment of song, or both together, with
choruses of boys and girls. Here we have the beginnings of
orchestral music as the accompaniment of choruses.

Music had a great influence on the literature of the age, 482. Lyric po-
for the poets now began to write verses to be sung with an^dsapphr
the music of the lyre, and hence such verses are called " lyric "
poetry. From serious discussions like those of Solon (§ 468)
the poets passed to songs of momentary moods, longings,
dreams, hopes, and fiery storms of passion. Each in his way
found a wondrous world within himself^ which he thus pic-
tured in short songs. Probably the greatest of these poets
was Pindar of Thebes. Proud of his noble birth, the friend
and intimate of tyrants and nobles, but also their fearless ad-
monisher, Pindar gloried both in the pleasures and the respon-
sibilities of wealth and rank. He sang in praise of pomp and
splendor with a vividness which makes us see the chariots
flashing down the course and hear the shouting of the multitude
as the proud victor receives the laurel wreath of triumph. In
exalted speech, often difficult to understand, Pindar delighted
thus to glorify the life and rule of the nobles. At the same
time his immortal word pictures of their life and their triumphs
are always suffused with the beauty of unquestioning belief in
the gods, especially Apollo, for, whom Pindar seemed to speak
almost as a prophet. He was the last great spokesman of a
dying order of society, the rule of the nobles, which was to
give way to the rule of the people. Another great lyric singer
of the age was the poetess Sappho, the earliest woman to gain
undying fame in literature. Indeed, she was perhaps the
greatest poetess the world has ever seen.

A favorite form of song was the chorus, with which the coun- 483. Festival
try folk loved to celebrate their rustic feasts (headpiece, p. 221). come drama
The poet Stesichorus, who lived in Sicily, began to write
choruses which told the stories of the gods as they were found
in the old myths. The singers as they marched in rustic pro-
cession wore goatskins, and their faces were concealed by masks.

3IO Ancient Times

Some of the songs were sung responsively by the chorus and
their leader. For the diversion of the listening peasants the
leader would illustrate with gestures the story told in the song.
He thus became to some extent an actor, the forerunner of
the actors on our own stage. After Pisistratus introduced
the spring feast of Dionysus at Athens (§ 474), this form of
presentation made rapid progress. A second leader was intro-
duced, and dialogue between the two was then possible, though
the chorus continued to recite most of the narrative. Thus
arose a form of musical play or drama, the action or narrative
of which was carried on by the chorus and two actors. The
Greeks called such a play a tragedy, which means " goat's
play," probably because of the rustic disguise as goats which
the chorus had always worn.

484. Origin The grassy circle where the chorus danced and sang was

usually on a slope in the hills, from which the spectators had
a fine view of the country and the sea beyond. At Athens the
people sat on the slope of the Acropolis, and as they watched the
play they could look far across the sea to the heights of Argos.
Here, under the southern brow of the Acropolis, where Pisistra-
tus laid out the sacred precinct of Dionysus (see plan, p. 352), the
theater began to take form and furnished the arrangements which
have finally been inherited by us in our theaters (see Fig. 189).

485. Archi- The tyrants were so devoted to building that architecture
made very important advances. The Greek cities, including the
buildings of the government, were still simply groups of sun-
dried-brick buildings. Great stone buildings such as we have
seen on the Nile had been unknown in Europe since the time
of the ^geans (Fig. 145), but now the rough Greek temples
of sun-dried brick were rebuilt in limestone by the tyrants.
Indeed, the front of the temple of Apollo at Delphi was even
built of marble. At no other time before or since were so many
temples erected as in the Greek world in the Age of the
Tyrants. In Sicily and southern Italy a number of the noble
temples of this age still stand to display to us the beauty and

lecture

The Industrial Revolution

311

simplicity of Greek architecture when it was still at an unde-
veloped stage (Fig. 219). Instead of the wooden posts of
the Age of the Nobles
(§ 449), these temples
were surrounded by lines
of plain stone columns
(colonnades) in a style
which we call Doric
(Fig. 167). Although the
architects of the tyrants
borrowed the idea and
the form of these colon-
nades from Egypt, they
improved them until they
made them the most
beautiful columns ever
designed by early archi-
tects. Like those on the
Nile, these Greek tem-
ples were painted in
bright colors (see p. 340).
Such temples were
adorned, in the triangu-
lar gable end, with sculp-
tured relief figures of
the gods, grouped in
scenes representing in-
cidents in the myths.
Although at first very
much influenced by ori-
ental reliefs, the sculptor
soon produced works of
real beauty and inde-
pendence (Fig. 169). In
meeting the demand for

FiG. 167.

UMN AND

An Old Egyptian Col-
THE Doric Column de-
rived FROM IT

The earliest form of column used by the
Greeks was a fluted shaft of stone {B)
closely resembling the simplest form {A)
which we found in Egypt, dating nearly
2000 B.C. (Fig. 57). Not only the whole
idea of a rhythmic row of piers but also
the form of each shaft was thus taken
by the Greeks from Egypt. The Greeks
gave this form completeness and in-
creased beauty by adding a capital and
shaping it with great refinement of line
and contour. We should recall that col-
onnades were not in use in the Asiatic
Orient until the Persians introduced them
there (Fig. 116). See also diagram, p. 340

486. Sculp-
ture

A B

Fig. 1 68. Early Greek Statue and Egyptian Portrait
Statue by which it was influenced

The Egyptian portrait {B) is over two thousand years older than the
Greek figure {A). The noble {B), one of those whose estate we visited
on the Nile (§ 80), stands in the customary posture of such figures in
Egyptian art, with the arms hanging down and the left foot thrust
forward. The Greek figure {A) stands in the same posture, with the
left foot thrust forward. Both look straight ahead, as was customary
in undeveloped art. The Greek figure shows clearly the influence
of Egyptian sculpture

-112

The Industrial Revolution 3 1 3

statues of the victors at the games, the Greek sculptors were
also much influenced by the Egyptian figures they had seen.
Their earliest figures in stone were therefore still stiff and un-
graceful (Fig. 168). Moved by patriotic impulses, however,

^^Ih^^^^I^h

HMmmH

^^>ilJ

Fig. 169. Monument of the Tyrant Slayers of Athens,
Harmodius and Aristogiton, from Two Points of View

On the slopes of the Areopagus (see plan, p. 352, and Fig. 182) over-
looking the market place, the Athenians set up this group, depicting
at the moment of attack the two heroic youths who lost their lives in an
attempt to slay the two sons of Pisistratus and to free Athens from
the two tyrants (514 B.C.) (§ 475). The group was carried off by the
Persians after the battle of Salamis ; the Athenians had another made
to replace the first one. It was afterward recovered in Persia by
Alexander or his successors and restored to its old place where both
groups stood side by side. Our illustration is an ancient copy in
marble, probably reproducing the later of the two groups

the Athenian sculptors went still farther and attempted a kind
of work which never had arisen in the Orient. They wrought
a noble memorial of the two youths who endeavored to free
Athens from the sons of Pisistratus. It was in the form of
a group depicting the two at the moment of their attack on
the tyrants, and although it still displayed some of the old
stiffness, it also showed remarkable progress toward free and

314

Ancient Times

vigorous action of the human body (Fig. 169). These figures
were cast in bronze.
487. Painting Similar progress was made by the painters of the age. Just
as the poets had begun to call upon their own imagination for
subject matter, so the vase-painters now began to depict not
only scenes from the myths of. the gods and heroes, but also
pictures from the everyday life of the times (see the school,

Fig. 170. Greek Vase-Painting, showing the Home Life
OF Women

A maidservant at the right presents to her mistress an Egyptian
alabaster perfume bottle (see the same shape in glass, Fig. 49). The
mistress sits arranging her hair before a hand mirror. Behind her
approaches another woman. At the left a lady is working at an em-
broidery frame, while a visitor in street costume watches her work.
Behind stands a lady with a basket. Notice the grace and beauty of the
figures, which at this time were in red (the natural color of the terra
cotta), showing through a shining black pigment laid on by the artist

Fig. 181). At the same time they improved their method greatly
(cf. Fig. 170). They made drawings of the human figure that
were more natural and true than early artists had ever before
been able to do. Their skill in depicting limbs shortened by
being seen from one end was surprising. These problems, called
foreshortening and perspective, were first solved by the Greek
painters. The vases of this age are a wonderful treasury of
beautiful scenes from Greek life (Fig. 170), reminding us of
our glimpses into the life of Egypt two thousand five hundred
years earlier, in the tomb-chapel scenes of the Nile.

The Industrial Revohition 315

Literature and painting show us that the Greeks of this age 488. Grow-
were intensely interested in the life of their own time. In the ri|htTnd °
first place, they were thinking more deeply than ever before J^Jj^fn't^"""
about conduct, and they were better able to distinguish between hereafter
right and wrong. Men could no longer believe that the gods
led the evil lives pictured in the Homeric songs. Stesichorus
(§ 483) had so high an idea of womanly fidelity that he could
not accept the tale of the beautiful Helen's faithlessness, and
in his festival songs he told the ancient story in another way.
Men now felt that even Zeus and his Olympian divinities must
do the right. Mortals too must do the same, for men had now
come to believe that in the world of the dead there was punish-
ment for the evildoer. Hades became a place of torment for
the wicked, guarded by Cerberus, a monstrous dog, one of those
sentinel animals of the Orient of. which the Sphinx of Gizeh
(Fig. 54), also guarding the dead, is the oldest example.

Likewise it was believed that there must be a place of 489. Bless-
blessedness for the good in the next world. Accordingly, in hereafter;
the temple at Eleusis scenes from the mysterious earth life of^gfeuJ?"
of Demeter and Dionysus, to whom men owed the fruits of
the earth, were presented by the priests in dramatic form
before the initiated, and he who viewed them mysteriously
received immortal life and might be admitted into the Islands
of the Blessed, where once none but the ancient heroes could
be received. Even the poorest slave was permitted to enter .
this fellowship and be initiated into the "mysteries," as they
were called.

More than ever, also, men now turned to the gods for a 490- Oracles
knowledge of the future in this world. Everywhere it was
believed that the oracle voice of Apollo revealed the outcome
of every untried venture, and his shrine at Delphi (Figs, 171
and 172) became a national religious center, to which the whole
Greek world resorted.

Some thoughtful men, on the other hand, were rejecting
the beliefs of older times, especially regarding the world and

3i6

Aftcient Times

491. Thales
and his pre-
diction of
an eclipse
(585 B.C.)

its control by the gods. Ihe Ionian cities, long the com-
mercial leaders of the ^Egean, now likewise led the way in

thinking of these
new problems. In
constant contact
with Egypt and the
Phoenician cities,
they gained the
beginnings of math-
ematics and as-
tronomy as known
in the Orient, and
one of the Ionian
thinkers had in-
deed set up an
Egyptian shadow
clock (Fig. 74).
At Miletus, the
leader of these Io-
nian cities, there
was an able states-
man named Thales,
who had traveled
widely, and re-
ceived from Baby-
lonia a list of ob-
servations of the
heavenly bodies.
From such lists the
Babylonians had al-
ready learned that

Fig. 171. View over the Valley and
Ruins of Delphi to the Sea

This splendid gorge in the slopes of Mount Par-
nassus on the north side of the Corinthian Gulf
(see map, p. 352) was very early sacred to Apollo,
who was said to have slain the dragon Pytho
which lived here. The white line of road in the
foreground is the highway descending to the
distant arm of the Corinthian Gulf. On the left
of this road the cliff descends sheer 1000 feet,
and above the road (on its right) on the steep
slope are the ruins of the sacred buildings of
ancient Delphi, excavated by the French in re-
cent years. We can see the zigzag road lead-
ing up the hill among the ruins just at the right
of the main road (cf. also Fig. 172)

eclipses of the sun
occurred at periodic intervals (§ 239). W^ith these lists in his
hands Thales could calculate when the next eclipse would
occur. He therefore told the people of Miletus that they might

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318

Ancient Times

492. Natural
law versus the
gods; rise of
science and
philosophy
among the
1 onians

493. Ionian
geography
and history

expect an eclipse of the sun before the end of a certain year.
When the promised eclipse (585 B.C.) actually occurred as he
had predicted, the fame of Thales spread far and wide.

The prediction of an eclipse, a feat already accomplished by
the Babylonians (§ 239), was not so important as the conse-
quences which followed in the mind of Thales. Hitherto men
had believed that eclipses and all the other strange things that
happened in the skies were caused by the momentary angry
whim of some god. Now, however, Thales boldly proclaimed
that the movements of the heavenly bodies were in accordance
with fixed laws. The gods were thus banished from control
of the sky-world where the eagle of Zeus had once ruled
(§ 413). So also when a Greek traveler like Thales visited the
vast buildings of the Orient, like the pyramids of Gizeh, then
over two thousand years old, he at once saw that the gods had
not been wandering on earth a few generations before his own
time. This fact seemed to banish the gods from the past, and
from the beginning of the world likewise.

Hence another citizen of Miletus, perhaps a pupil of Thales,
explained the origin of animals by assuming a development of
higher forms from the lower ones, in a manner which reminds
us of the modern theory of evolution. He studied the forms
of the seas and the countries, and he made a map of the world.
It is the earliest world map known to us, although maps of a
limited region were already in use in Egypt and Babylonia.
A little later another geographer of Miletus, named Hecataeus,
traveled' widely, including a journey up the Nile, and he wrote
a geography of the world. In this book, as in the map just
mentioned, the Mediterranean Sea was the center, and the
lands about it for a short distance back from its shores were
all those which were known to the author (see his map, p. 319).
Hecataeus also put together a history made up of the mythical
stories of early Greece and the tales of the past he had heard
in the Orient. After the Unknown Historian of the Hebrews
(§ 302), he was the first historical writer of the early world.

The Industrial Revohition

319

Another Ionian thinker, who migrated to southern Italy, was
Pythagoras. He investigated mathematics and natural science.
He or his pupils discovered that the square of the hypotenuse
equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides of a right-
angled triangle. They also found out that the length of a musi-
cal string is in exact mathematical relation to the height of
its tone. They
likewise discov-
ered that the
earth is a sphere
which possesses
its own motion.
Another of these
lonians, in his
account of the
origin of the
earth, called at-
tention to the
presence of pet-
rified sea plants
and fish in the
rocks, to prove
that the sea had
at one time cov-
ered the land.

494. Ionian
mathematics
and natural

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Map of the World by Hecat^eus (517 b.c.)

Thus these Ionian thinkers, having gradually abandoned the
old myths, took the natural world out of the hands of the gods.
They therefore became the forerunners of natural scientists and
philosophers, for they strove to discern what were the natural
laws which in the beginning had brought the world into exist-
ence, and still continued to control it. At this point in their
thinking they entered upon a new world of thought, which we
call science and philosophy — a world which had never dawned
upon the greatest minds of the early East. This step, taken
by Thales and the great men of the Ionian cities, remains and

495. The

great step
taken by
the Ionian
thinkers

320 ^ Ancient Times

will forever remain the greatest achievement of the human in-
tellect — an achievement to call forth the reverence and admi-
ration of all time.
496. Sum- The Age of the Tyrants was therefore one of the great

of the Age of epochs of the world's history. Under the stimulus of the keen
the Tyrants struggle for leadership in business, in government, and in
society, the minds of the ablest men of the time were wonder-
fully quickened, till they threw off the bondage of habit and
entered an entirely new world of science and philosophy. The
inner power of this vigorous new Greek life flowed out in
statesmanship, in literature and religion, in sculpture and
painting, in architecture and building. As a group the leaders
of this age, many of them tyrants, made an impression which
never entirely disappeared, and they were called " the Seven
Wise Men." They were the earliest statesmen and thinkers
of Greece. The people loved to quote their sayings, such as
" Know thyself," a proverb which was carved over the door of
the Apollo temple at Delphi (Fig. 172); or Solon's wise maxim,
" Overdo nothing." After the overthrow of the sons of Pisis-
tratus, however, the tyrants were disappearing, and although a
tyrant here and there survived, especially in Asia Minor and
Sicily, Greece at this time (about 500 b.c.) passed out of the
Age of the Tyrants.

QUESTIONS

Section 46. How did the new colonies of the Greeks influence
manufacturing at home ? What can you tell of commerce and manu-
factures? What step toward freedom from foreign influences did
Greek manufactures take ? What evidence have we of the extent of
Athenian commerce.? Discuss the effect upon shipbuilding. What
new business convenience came in from the East ? How did coinage
arise? What leading coins did Athens possess? How did coinage
affect business and the accumulation of wealth ? From our point of
view did the Greeks have any large cities or farms ?

Section 47. What was now happening to the Greek farmers in
the matter of wealth? in the matter of military and political power?

The Industrial Revolution 321

Were the nobles all united? What attitude toward the common
people did a leading noble often take ? What was the result ? How
did the Greeks feel toward a tyrant ? When may we date the period
of the tyrants ?

In what form had Greek laws thus far existed? What did the
people now demand? What code of laws was made at Athens?
Who now aroused Athens to meet her foreign difficulties? What
did Solon accomplish after he was elected archon? What can you
say of his character ? Did his work save Athens from the rule of a
tyrant ?

What did Pisistratus accomplish ? When did he die ? What hap-
pened to his sons? How did Clisthenes aid the people? What was
ostracism? What was meantime happening in Sparta? How did
Sparta feel toward Athens ?

Section 48. Describe the social position of the nobles in the
Age of the Tyrants. What was their attitude toward the athletic
games ? What can you say of education in this age ? Discuss instru-
mental music ; vocal music. What was lyric poetry ? Who was the
leading lyric poet, and what can you say of his poetry ? Of what class
was he the spokesman? Who was the greatest poetess? How did
festal choruses lead to drama ? What was the origin of the theater ?

Had the Greeks any fine buildings in this age? What was the
building material? Had they never seen any stone buildings? In
what style of architecture were the temples erected ? Where did the
form of the Doric column arise .•*• Did the Greeks improve these
columns ? Did they color them ? What other adornment of his tem-
ples did the Greek architect employ? Under what influences did
Greek sculpture arise? What progress does the monument of the
tyrant-slayers show?

Discuss Greek vase-painting in this age. What subjects did the
vase-painters select? Compare the human figures in Fig. 170 and
those in Fig. 155 and express your opinion of the progress made
in two and a half centuries. How was the method of vase-painting
improved? What progress was made in ideas of conduct? Discuss
the ideas of the hereafter ; oracles. What did Thales do ? Was he
the first to make such a calculation ? What conclusions did he make
about the gods and their control of the world ? Tell about the first
maps of the world. What new world had the Ionian thinkers entered
upon ? What can you say of the Age of the Tyrants as a whole ?

CHAPTER XIII

THE REPULSE OF PERSIA

Section 49. The Coming of the Persians

The leadership gained by the Ionian cities in the Age of the
Tyrants was now seriously checked by their neighbors in Asia
Minor. Here still lived the descendants of the Hittites (§ 351),
mingled with later invaders (§ 376). The kings of Lydia, their
leading kingdom, where we have already met Croesus (§ 260),
made their capital, Sardis, the strongest city of Asia Minor
(Fig. 173). From them the practice of coinage had passed to
the Greeks (§ 458). The Lydians had finally conquered all the
Greek cities along the ^gean coast of Asia Minor except Miletus,
which still resisted capture.

The Lydians had been strong enough to halt the Medes, but
we remember that when Cyrus the Persian invaded Asia Minor,
he defeated Croesus and captured Sardis (§ 260). In the midst

Note. The above headpiece represents a scene sculptured in relief on a door-
way in the palace of Xerxes at Persepolis (Fig. ii6). It shows us Xerxes as he
was accustomed to appear when enthroned before his nobles, with his attendants
and fan-bearers. At Salamis he took his station on the heights of ^Egaleos over-
looking the bay (§ 513), and as he sat there viewing the battle below him, he must
have been enthroned as we see him here.

322

The Repulse of Persia

323

of the most remarkable progress in civilization (§§ 491-496),
the Ionian cities IKus suddenly lost their liberty and became the
subjects of Persia, a despotic oriental power. Moreover, the sud-
den advance of Persia to the ^gean made this power at one
stroke a close neighbor of the Greek world now arising there.

Fig. 173. Sardis, the City* of Crcesus, in Course of
Excavation

The natural drainage from the mountain slope in the background has
covered the ruins of the city with earth. The bank showing the edge
of this earth and the limit of the excavations can be seen behind the
columns of the temple rising in the middle. These excavations, which
have produced very important results, are an American enterprise
under the direction of Professor Howard Crosby Butler, to whose kind-
ness the author owes this photograph

As we have already learned, the Persians represented a high 499. The
civilization and an enlightened rule; but, on the other hand, m^^aifd'th"
the Orient lacked free citizenship, and in place of science the revolt of the

^' ^ lomans

Orientals felt complete subjection of the mind to religious
tradition. Persian supremacy in Greece would therefore have

324

Ancient Times

?oo. First
'ersian in-
vasion of
Europe

checked the free development of Greek genius along its own
exalted lines. There seemed little prospect that the tiny Greek
states, even if they united, could successfully resist the vast
oriental empire, controlling as it did all the countries of the
ancient East, which we have been studying. Nevertheless the
Ionian cities revolted against their Persian lords.

During the struggle with Persia which followed this revolt,

Spi. Second
Persian in-

502. Con-
sternation
in Athens
and Greece

the AthenlalTSTsenf" twenty ships to aid their Ionian kindred^
Thrs act brought a Persian army of revenge, under Darius,
InllT Euiupc. — ^fhe long march across the Hellespont and
Ihrough Thrace cost the invaders many men, and the fleet
which accompanied the Persian advance was wrecked in tr)ang
to round the high promontory of Mount Athos (492 B.C.).
This advance into Greece was therefore abandoned for a plan
of invasion by water across the ^'gean.

In the early summer uf 490 B.C. a considerable .fleets of
transports and warships bearing, the Persian host put out frora,^
the Island of Samos, sailed straight across the ^Rgean, and
entered the straits between Euboea and Attica (see map I,
p. 344, and Fig. 174). The Persians began by burning the
Jittle city^of^Jjcetna, Hhick-had also sent ships to aid the^
lonians. They then landed on the shores of Attica, in the Bay
of Marathon (see map, p. 352, and Fig. 174), intending to
march on Athens, the greater offender. They were guided by
the aged Hippias, son of Pisistratus, once tyrant of Athens,
who accompanied them with high hopes of regaining control
of his native city.

All was excitement and confusion among the Greek states.
The defeat of the revolting Ionian cities, and especially the
Persian sack of Miletus, had made a deep impression through-
out Greece,. An Athenian dramatist had depicted in a play the
plunder of the unhappy city and so incensed the Athenians that
they passed weeping from the theater to prosecute and fine the
author. Now this Persian foe who had crushed the Ionian
cities was camping behind the hills only a few miles northeast

The Repulse of Persia

325

of Athens. After^pat^hing messengers in desperate haste to
seek aid m Sparta, the Athenian citizens turned to contem-
platethe seemingly hopeless situation of their beloved city.

Fig. 1 74. The Plain of Marathon

This view is taken from the hills at the south end of the plain, and we
look northeastward across a corner of the Bay of Marathon to the
mountains in the background, which are- on the large island of Euboea
(see map, p. 352). The Persian camp was on the plain at the very shore
line, where their ships were moored or drawn up. The Greeks held a
position in the hills overlooking the plain (just out of range on the left)
and commanding the road to Athens, which is 25 miles distant behind
us. When the Persians began to move along the shore road toward
the right, the Greeks crossed the plain and attacked. The memorial
mound (Fig. 175) is too far away to be visible from this point

Thinking to find the Athenians unprepared, Darius had not 503. The
sent a Ta^earmy. The Persian forces probably numbered oreek^^
no more than twenty thousand men, but at the utmost the leadership
Athenians could not put more than half this number into the
field^ Fortunately for them there was among their generals a
skilled and experienced commander named Miltiades, a man

326

Ancient Times

504. The
Greek po-
sition

505. The
battle of
Marathon
(490 B.C.)

of resolution and firmness, who, moreoYer>._had lived on the
Hellespont and was familiar with Persian methods of fighting.
To his judgment the commander-in-chief, Callimachus, yielded
at all points. As the citizen-soldiers of Attica flocked to the
city at the call to arms, Miltiades was abk .tg. induce . the
leaders not to await the assaulFof the Persians at Athens, but
to march across the peninsula (see map, p. 352) and block the
Persian advance among the hills overlooking the eastern coast
and commanding the road to the city. This bold and resolute
move roused courage and enthusiasm in the downcast ranks
of the Greeks.

Nevertheless, when they issued between the hills and looked
down upon the Persian host encamped upon the Plain of^
Marathon (Fig. 174), flanked by a fleet of hundreds of vessels^
misgivinp^ and despair chilled the hearts of the litde Attic army
made up as it was of citizen militia without experience in
war, and pitted against a Persian army of professional sol-
diers of many battles. But Miltiades held the leaders firmly
in hand, and the arrival of a thousand Greeks from Plataea
revived the courage of the Athenians. The Greek position
overlooked the main road to Athens, and the Persians could
not advance without leaving their line of march exposed on
one side to the Athenian attack.

Unable to lure the Greeks from their advantageous position
after several days' waiting, the Persians at length attempted to
march along the road to Athens, at the same time endeavoring
to cover their exposed line of march with a sufficient force
thrown out in battle array. Miltiades was familiar with the
Persian custom of massing troops in the center. He there-
fore massed his own troops on both wings, leaving his center
weak. It was a battle between bow and spear. The Athenians
undauntedly faced the storm of Persian arrows (§ 259 and
Fig. 113), and then both wings pushed boldly forward to the
line of shields behind which the Persian archers were kneeling.
In the meantime the Persian center, finding the Greek center

The Repulse of Persia

327

weak, had pushed it back, while the two Greek wings closed in
on either side and thrust back the Persian wings in confusion.
The Asiatic army crumbled into a broken multitude between

the two advancing lines of Greeks. The Persian bow was use-
less, and the Greek spear everywhere spread death and terror.
As the Persians fled to their ships they left over six thousand

Fig. 175. Mound raised as a Mqnument to the Fallen
Greeks on the Plain at Marathon

The mound is nearly 50 feet high. Excavations undertaken in 1890 dis-
closed beneath it the bodies of the one hundred and ninety-two Athenian
citizens who fell in the battle. Some of their weapons and the funeral
vases buried with them were also recovered

dead upon the field, while the Athenians lost less than two hun-
dred men (Fig. 175). When the Persian commander, unwilling
to acknowledge defeat, sailed around the Attic peninsula and
appeared with his fleet before the port of Athens, he found it
unwise to attempt a landing, for the victorious Athenian army
was already encamped beside the city. The Persians therefore
retired, and we can imagine with what feelings the Athenian
citizens watched the Persian ships as they disappeared.

328 Ancient Times

Section 50. The Greek Repulse of Persians

AND PhCENICIANS

506. Rise of Among the men who stood in the Athenian ranks at Mara-

thon was Themistocles, the ablest statesman in Greece, a man
who had already occupied the office of archon, the head of the
Athenian state. He was convinced of the necessity of building
up a strong navy — a course already encouraged by Pisistratus
(§ 474). As archon, Themistocles had therefore striven to show
the Athenians that the only way in which Athens could hope to
meet the assault of Persia was by making herself undisputed
mistress of the sea. He had failed in his effort. But now the
Athenians had seen the Persians cross the ^gean with their
fleet and land at Marathon. It was evident that a powerful
Athenian navy might have stopped them. They began to listen
to the counsels of Themistocles to make Athens the great sea
power of the Mediterranean.

507. Xerxes Darius the Great, whose reiriarliahle. reign -we- have studied.

inherits the r — r — r: — z r~j T . , , n r /■ i •

Persian quar- (§§ 267-273), died Without havmg avenged the defeat of his

Greeks ^ ^ army at_ Marathon. His son and successor Xerxes therefore
took up the unfinished task. Xerxes planned a far-reaching
assault on Greek civilization all along the line from Greece to
Sicily. This he could do through his control of the Phoenician
cities. The naval policy of his father Darius (§ 27o)had given
the Persians a huge Pjiajaiciaiuivar fleet. In so far as the com-
ing attack on Greece was by sea it was chiefly a Semitic assault.
At the same time Xerxes induced Phoejiician Carthage to atjg^gk^
the Greeks in Sicily. Thus the two wings of the great Semitic
line" repreiented by the Phoenicians in east and west (Carthage)
were to attack the Indo-European line (Fig. 112) represented in
east and west by the Greeks. Xerxes was induced by his general
Mardonius to adopt the Hellespont route (map I, p. 344).

Meantime the Greeks were making ready to meet the coming
Persian assault. They soon saw that Xerxes' commanders were
cutting a canal behind the promontory of Athos, to secure a

The Repulse of Persia 329

short cut and thus to avoid all risk of such a wreck as had over- 508. The-
taken their former fleet in rounding this dangerous point. When SSduces^the
the news of this operation reached Athens, Themistocles was Athenians to

^ ' build a fleet

able to induce the Athenian Assembly to build a great fleet of
probably a hundred and eighty triremes. The Greeks were
then able for the first time to meet the Persian advance by
both sea and land (see map I, p. 344).

Themistocles' masterly plan of campaign corresponded ex- 509. Third
actly to the plan of the Persian advance. The Asiatics were vSon— The-
coming in combined land and sea array, with army and fleet "Jistocles'
moving together down the east coast of the Greek mainland, campaign
It was as if the Persian forces had two wings, a sea wing and
a land wing, moving side by side. The design of Themistocles
was to meet the Persian sea wing first with full force and fight **
a decisive naval batde as soon as possible. If victorious, the
Greek fleet commanding the ^gean would then be able to sail
up the eastern coast of Greece and threaten the communica-
tions and supplies of the Persian army. There must be no at-
tempt of the small Greek army to meet the vast land forces of
the Persians, beyond delaying them as long as possible at the
narrow northern passes, which could be defended with a few
men. An attempt to unite all the Greek states was not success-
ful, but Sparta and Athens combined their forces to meet the
common danger. Themistocles was able to induce the Spartans
to accept his plan only on condition that Sparta be given com-
mand of the allied Greek fleets.

In the summer of 480 b.c^ the Asiatic army was approaching 510. Persians
the pass of Thermopylae (Fig. 176), just opposite the western-
most point of the Island of Euboea (see map, p. 352). Their
fleet moved with them. The Asiatic host must have numbered
over two hundred thousand men, with probably as many more
camp followers, while the enormous fleet contained presumably
about a thousand vessels, of which perhaps two thirds were
warships. Of these ships, the Persians lost a hundred or two
in a storm, leaving probably about five hundred warships

330

Ancient Times

available for action. The Spartan king Leonidas led some five
thousand men to check the Persians at the pass of Thermopylae,
while the Greek fleet of less than three hundred triremes was
endeavoring to hold together and strike the Persian navy at

Fig. 176. The Pass of Thermopylae

In the time of the Persian invasion the mountains to the left dropped
steeply to the sea, with barely room between for a narrow road. Since
then the rains of twenty-four hundred years have washed down the
mountainside, and it is no longer as steep as formerly, while the neigh-
boring river has filled in the shore and pushed back the sea several
miles. Otherwise we would see it here on the right. The Persians,
coming from beyond the mountains toward our point of view, could not
spread out in battle array, being hemmed in by the sea on one side and
the cliff on the other. It was only when a traitorous Greek led a Persian
force by night over the mountain on the left, and they appeared behind
the Greeks in the pass, that Leonidas and his Spartans were crushed by
the simultaneous attack in front and rear (§§ 510-51 1)

Artemisium, on the northern coast of Euboea. Thus the land
and sea forces of both contestants were face to face.

After several days' delay the Persians advanced to attack on
both land and sea. The Greek fleet made a skillful and credit-
able defense against superior numbers, and all day the dauntless

The Repulse of Persia 331

Leonidas held the pass of Thermopylae against the Persian
host. Meantime the Persians were executing two flank move-
ments by land and by sea — one over the mountains to strike and Arte-
Leonidas in the rear, and the other with two hundred ships
around Euboea to take the Greek fleet likewise from behind.
A storm destroyed the flanking Persian ships, and a second
combat between the two main fleets was indecisive. The flank
movement by sea therefore failed ; but the flanking of the pass
was successful. Taken in front and rear, the heroic Leonidas
died fighting at the head of his small force, which the Persian
host completely annihilated. The death of Leonidas stirred all
Greece. With the jkfgatjjl the Greek land forces and the ad-
vance of the Persian army, the Greek fTeeF,~seriously damaged,
-jaas obliged to withdraw to the south. It took up its position
in the Bay of Salamis (see map, p. 352, and Fig. 177), while
the main army of the Spartans and their allies was drawn up on
the Isthmus of Corinth (Fig. 163), the only point at which the
Greek land forces could hope to make another defensive stand.

As the Persian army moved southward from Thermopylae, 512. Persian
the indomitable Themistocles gathered together the Athenian Attka'Jnd*^
population and carried them in transports to the little islands burning of
of Salamis and ^^Egina and to the shores of Argolis (see map,
p. 352, and PI. Ill, p. 276). Meantime the Greek fleet had
been repaired, and with reinforcements numbered over three
hundred battleships. Nevertheless it shook the courage of many
at Salamis as they looked northward, where the far-stretching
Persian host darkened the coast road, while in the south they
could see the Asiatic fleet drawn up off the old port of Athens
at Phalerum (see map, p. 352). High over the Attic hills the
flames of the burning Acropolis showed red against the sullen
masses of smoke that obscured the eastern horizon and told
them that the homes of the Athenians lay in ashes. With
masterly skill Themistocles held together the irresolute Greek
leaders, while he induced Xerxes to attack by the false message
that the Greek fleet was about to slip out of the bay.

33^

Ancient Times

513. Battle
of Salamis
(480 B.C.)

On the heights overlooking the Bay of Salamis the Persian
king, seated on his throne (headpiece, p. 322) in the midst of
his brilliant oriental court, took up his station to watch the battle.

Fig. 177. PiRvEus, the Port of Athens, and the Strait and
Island of Salamis

The view shows the very modern houses and buildings of this flourish-
ing harbor town of Athens (see map, p. 352). The mountains in the
background are the heights of the island of Salamis, which extends also
far over to the right (north), opposite Eleusis (see map, p. 352). The
four steamers at the right are lying at the place where the hottest
fighting in the great naval battle here (§ 513) took place. The Persian
fleet advanced from the left (south) and could not spread out in a
long front to enfold the Greek fleet because of the little island just
beyond the four steamers, which was called Psyttaleia. The Greek
fleet lying behind Psyttaleia and a long point of Salamis came into
action from the right (north), around Psyttaleia, and met the front of
the Persian fleet about where the four steamers lie. A body of Persian
troops stationed by Xerxes on Psyttaleia were all slain by the Greeks

The Greek position between the jutting headlands of Salamis
and the Attic mainland (see map, p. 352, and Fig. 177) was
too cramped for the maneuvers of a large fleet. Crowded and
hampered by the narrow sea room, the huge Asiatic fleet soon
fell into confusion before the Greek attack. There was no room

The Repulse of Persia 333

for retreat. The combat lasted the entire day, and when dark-
less settled on the Bay of Salamis.the Persian fleet, had. been,,
almost annihilated. The Athenians were masters of the sea, and
it was impossible for the army of Xerxes to operate with the
same freedom as before. By the creation of its powerful fleet
Athens had saved Greece, and Themistocles had shown himself
the greatest of Greek statesmen.

Xerxes was now troubled lest he should be cut off from Asia 514. Retreat
by the victorious Greek fleet. Indeed, Themistocles made every j^ the East •
effort to induce Sparta to join with Athens in doing this very ^'^^^ ^^ •
thing ; but the cautious Spartans could not be prevailed upon the West
to undertake what seemed to them so dangerous an enterprise.
Had Themistocles' plan of sending the Greek fleet immediately
to the Hellespont been carried out, Greece would have been
saved another year of anxious campaigning against the Persian
army. With many losses from disease and insufljcientf^l^pplj^s,..
Xerxes retreated to the Hellespont and withdrew into Asia,
leaving his able general Mardonius with an army of perhaps
fifty thousand men to winter in Thessaly. Meantime the news
Tieached Greece that the army of Carthaginians which had
crossed from Africa to Sicily had been completely defeated by
the Greeks under the leadership of Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse.
Thus the assault of the Asiatics upon the Hellenic world was
beaten back in both east and west in the same year (480 B.C.).

The brilliant statesmanship of Themistocles, so evident to us 515. Reac-
of to-day, was not so clear to the Athenians as the winter passed ThemfsTodes
and they realized that the victory at Salamis had not relieved
Greece of the presence of a Persian army, and that Mardonius
would invade Attica with the coming of spring. Themistocles,
whose proposed naval expedition to the Hellespont would have
forced the Persian army out of Greece, was removed from
command by the factions of his ungrateful city. Nevertheless
the most tempting offers from Mardonius could not induce the
Athenians to forsake the cause of Greek liberty and join hands
with Persia.

334

Ancient Times

516. Persians
again in
Attica

517. Battle
of Plataea ;
final defeat
of Persia
(479 B.C.)

518. Athe-
nian fleet vic-
torious in
Ionia and
the North

As Mardonius, at the end of the winter rains, led his army
again into Attica, the unhappy Athenians were obliged to flee
as before, this time chiefly to Salamis. Sparta, always reluctant
and slow when the crisis demanded quick and vigorous action,
was finally induced to put her army into the field. When Mar-
donius in Attica saw the Spartan king Pausanias advancing
through the Corinthian Isthmus and threatening his rear, he
withdrew northward, having for the second time laid waste
Attica far and wide. With the united armies of Sparta, Athens,
and other allies behind him, Pausanias was able to lead some
thirty thousand heavy-armed Greeks of the phalanx, as he fol-
lowed Mardonius into Boeotia.

In several days of preliminary movements which brought the
two armies into contact at Plataea, the clever Persian showed,
his superiority^_out-maneuvering Pausanias and even gaining
possession of the southern passes behind the Greeks and cap-
turing a train of their supply wagons. But when Mardonius led
his archers forward at double-quick, and the Persians, kneeling
behind their line of shields, rained deadly volleys of arrows into
the compact Greek lines, the Hellenes never flinched, although
their comrades were falling on every hand. With the gaps closed
up, the massive Greek phalanx pushed through the line of
Persian shields, and, as at Marathon, the spear proved invincible
against the bow. In a heroic but hopeless effort to rally his
broken lines, Mardonius himself fell. The Persian cavalry
covered the rear of the flying Asiatic army and saved it from
destruction.

Not only European Greece, but Ionia too, was saved from
Asiatic despotism ; for. the Greek triremes, having meantime
crossed to the peninsula of Mycale on the north of Miletus,
drove out or destroyed the remnants of the Persian fleet. The
Athenians now also captured and occupied Sestus on the Euro-
pean side of the Hellespont, and thus held the crossing from
Asia into Europe closed against further Persian invasion. Thus

The Repulse of Persia 335

the grandsons of the men who had seen Persia advance to the
^gean had blocked her further progress in the West and thrust
her back from Europe. Indeed^no Eersian-amiy- £j^£n..seLi^
in European Greece again.

QUESTIONS

Section 49. What was the leading kingdom of Asia Minor be-
yond the fringe of Greek coast cities .? What had happened to these
Greek cities in the middle of the sixth century B.C. } Who was the
last king of Lydia? Who crushed the Lydian kingdom.? When?
What great oriental power thus advanced to the east side of the
^gean.? What do you think of the prospects for Greek resistance?

What did the Ionian cities of Asia do? What part did Athens
take in their revolt ? How did the Persians respond ? When ? Who
was their king? Where did they land in Greece? How far is
Marathon from Athens? What did the Athenians do? Discuss the
numbers of the two armies. Did the Athenians wait for the Persians
at Athens? Who was their leader? What position did the Greeks
take up, and what advantages were thus gained ? Describe the batde
of Marathon.

Section 50. What great Greek statesman had fought at Mara-
thon? What was his policy for the future defense of Athens? De-
scribe the plans of Xerxes for the subjection of Greece. What did
the Athenians do ? Describe Themistocles' plan of campaign. What
first two batdes took place? Describe them. What was the next
move of the Persian army ? Describe the battle of Salamis.

What did Xerxes do after the batde of Salamis ? What move did
Themistocles urge? What was the result of the Greek failure to
accept Themistocles' advice? What victory did the Greeks win in
Sicily at the same time? What racial conflict do these victories
represent ? What happened to Themistocles ? What did the Persian
commander now do ? Who was he ? Where did the final batde take
place ? Describe it. What final results were" obtained by the Greeks
at sea ?

CHAPTER XIV

THE GROWING RIVALRY BETWEEN ATHENS AND SPARTA,
AND THE RISE OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE

Section 51.. The Beginnings of the Rivalry
BETWEEN Athens and Sparta

519. Athe-
nian feeling
after Salamis

520. Spartan
soldier-
citizens

As the Athenians returned to look out over the ashes of
what was once Athens, amid which rose the smoke-blackened
heights of the naked Acropolis (Fig. 182), they began to realize
the greatness of their deliverance and the magnitude of their
achievement. With the not too ready help of Sparta, they had
met and crushed the hoary power of Asia. They felt themselves
masters of the world. The past seemed narrow and limited.
A new and greater Athens dawned upon their vision.

Of all this the Spartans, on the other hand, felt very little.
The Spartan citizens were all soldiers and devoted themselves
exclusively to military training. The State maintained public
meals, where each soldier-citizen ate with a group of about fif-
teen friends, all men, at the same table every day. Each citizen
contributed to the support of these meals, and as long as he
paid this contribution he retained his citizenship. His lands

Note. The above headpiece represents a potsherd bearing the name of
Themistocles, which is scratched in the surface of this fragment of a pottery jar
{osiracon, § 477). It was written there by some citizen of the six thousand who
desired and secured his ostracism in 472 B.C., or may have served a similar pur-
pose in the earlier but unsuccessful attempt to ostracize him.

The Growing Rivalry between Athens and Sparta 337

were cultivated for him by slaves, and his only occupation was
military drill and exercise. The State thus became a military
machine.

The number of such Spartan soldier-citizens was quite limited, 521. Spartan
sometimes being all together only a few thousand. As distin- citizen^sas
guished from the large non-voting population of the other towns ^ """^^"S class
in the Laconian peninsula, the citizens of Sparta formed a small
superior class. Thus their rule of the larger surrounding popu-
lation was the tyranny of a limited military class devoted to
war and almost without commerce or any interest in the arts
and industries. So old-fashioned were they, and so confident
in their own military power, that they would not surround their
city with a wall (Fig. 178). Sparta remained a group of strag-
gling villages, not deserving the name of city and entirely with-
out fine public buildings or great monuments of any kind.
Like a large military club or camp, it lived off its own slave-
worked lands and from the taxes it squeezed out of its subject
towns without allowing them any vote. In case of war the
two kings (§ 478) were still the military leaders.

We can now understand that the stolid Spartans, wearing 522. Con-
the fetters of a rigid military organization, and gifted with no spartaand
imagination, looked with misgivings" upon the larger world AtherTs^^'^^
which was opening to Greek life. Although they desired to
lead Greece in military power, they shrank from assuming the
responsibilities of expansion. They represented the past and
the privileges of the few. Athens represented the future and
the rights of the many. Thus Greece fell into two camps as it
were: Sparta (Fig. 178), the bulwark of tradition and limited
privileges; Athens (Fig. 182), the champion of progress and
the sovereign people. Thus 'the sentiment of union bom in
the common struggle for liberty, which might have united the
Hellenes into one Greek nation, was followed by an unquench-
able rivalry between the two leading states of Hellas, which
went on for another century and finally cost the Greeks the
supremacy of the ancient world.

338

Ancient Times

Fig. 178. The Plain where once Sparta stood

The olive groves now grow where the Spartans once had their houses.
The town was not walled until long after the days of Spartan and
Greek power were over. From the mountains (nearly 8000 feet high)
behind the plain the visitor can see northeastward far beyond Athens,
almost to Euboea; 100 miles northward to the mountains on the north
of the Corinthian Gulf (see map, p. 264); and 125 miles southward to
the \^land of Crete. This view shows also how Greece is cut up by
such mountains

523. The- Themistocles was now the soul of Athens and her policy of

thefortlfi- progress and expansion. He determined that Athens should no

cadon of longer follow Sparta. He cleverly hoodwinked the Spartans and,

in spite of their objections, completed the erection of strong

The Growing Rivalry between Athens and Sparta 339

walls around a new and larger Athens. At the same time he
fortified the Piraeus, the Athenian port (see map, p. 352, and
Fig. 177). When the Spartans, after the repulse of Persia,
relinquished the command of the combined Greek fleets, the
powerful Athenian fleet, the creation of Themistocles, was
master of the ^gean.

Section 52. The Rise of the Athenian Empire
AND THE Triumph of Democracy

As the Greek cities of Asia still feared the vengeance of the 524. Estab-

Persian king, it was easy for the Athenians to form a perma- the Deiian

nent defensive league with the cities of their Greek kindred in \^~^t\^^^

All ^-C.)

Asia and the ^gean islands. The wealthier of these cities con-
tributed ships, while others paid a sum of money each year into
the treasury of the league. Athens was to have command of
the combined fleet and collect the money. She placed in charge
of the important task of adjusting all contributions of the league
and collecting the tribute money a patriotic citizen named Aris-
tides, whose friends called him " the Just " because of his
honesty. He had opposed the naval plans of Themistocles and
when defeated had been ostracized,- but he had later distin-
guished himself at Salamis and Plataea. In spite of his former
opposition to Themistocles' plans, he now did important service
in vigorously aiding to establish the new naval league. The
treasure he collected was placed for protection in the temple
of Apollo, on the little island of Delos. Hence the federation
was known as the Deiian League. It was completed within
three years after Salamis. The transformation of such a league
into an empire, made up of states subject to Athens, could be
foreseen as a very easy step (see map II, p. 344). All this was
therefore viewed with increasing jealousy and distrust by Sparta.

Under the leadership of Cimon, the son of Miltiades the 525. Rise
hero of Marathon, the fleet of the league now drove the Per- ° ^"^°^
sians entirely out of the region of the Hellespont. Cimon did not

Sima

Cornice
Pediment or
gable

Cornice

Frieze (alter-
nate metopes
and triglyphs)

Capital

Channeled
shaft (with
section cut
out to save
space)

No base
Stylobate

Cornice
Pediment

Cornice
Frieze

Capital

Channeled
shaft (with
section cut
out to save
space)

Base

Stylobate

Comparative Diagram of the two Leading Greek Styles o?
Architecture, the Doric {A and B) and the Ionic {C and D)

The little Doric building {B) is the treasury of the Athenians at Delphi
(Fig. 172), containing their offerings of gratitude to Apollo. On the low
base at the left side of the building were placed the trophies from the
battle of Marathon. Over them on the walls are carved hymns to Apollo
with musical notes attached, the oldest musical notation surviving. The
beautiful Ionic building {D) is a restoration of the Temple of Victory on
the Athenian Acropolis (Fig. 183, B, and headpiece, p. 378). Contrast the
slender columns with the sturdier shafts of the Doric style, and it will be
seen that the Ionic order is a more delicate and graceful style. A and C
show details of both styles. (After Luckenbach)
340

The Grozving Rivalry between Athens and Sparta 341

understand the importance of Athenian supremacy in Greece,
but favored a policy of friendship and alliance with Sparta.
Hence political conflict arose at Athens over this question.
Noble and wealthy and old-fashioned folk favored Cimon and
friendship with Sparta, but progressive and modern Athenians
followed Themistocles and his anti-Spartan plans.

Themistocles was unable to win the Assembly ; he was ostra-
cized (headpiece, p. 336), and at length, on false charges of (472-471BVC.)
treason, he was condemned and obliged to flee for his life.
The greatest statesman in Athenian history spent the rest of
his life in the service of the Persian king, and he never again
saw the city he had saved from the Persians and made mistress
of an empire.

In a final battle Cimon crushed the Persian navy in the west 527. Fall
•(468 B.C.), and returned to Athens covered with glory. In
response to a request from the Spartans for help in quelling
a revolt among their own subjects, Cimon urged the dispatch
of troops to Sparta. Herein Cimon overestimated the good
feeling of the Spartans toward Athens ; for in spite of the
continuance of the revolt, the Spartans after a time curtly
demanded the withdrawal of the very Athenian troops they
had asked for. Stung by this rebuff, to which Cimon's friendly
policy toward Sparta had exposed them, the Athenians voted
to ostracize Cimon (461 b.c).

The overthrow of Cimon was a victory of the people against 528. Over-
the nobles. They followed it up by attacking the Council of cJSnd/o?^
Elders, once made up only of nobles (§4^1). It was called theAreopa-

^ ■' \ -TO / gyg . leader.

the Areopagus and used to meet on a hill of that name by ship of the
the market place (Fig. 182, and plan, p. 352). The people now counciUnd
passed new laws restricting the power of the Areopagus to the
trial of murder cases and the settlement of questions of state
religion, thus completely depriving it of all political power.
Meantime a more popular counciI_QXJfiLve_huiidred-members
had grown up and gained the power to conduct most of the
government business. This it did by dividing itself into ten

the citizen-
juries

342 Ancient Times

groups of fifty each, each group serving a little over a month
once a year. At the same time the citizen-juries introduced by
Solon as a court of appeal (§ 470) were enlarged until they con-
tained six thousand jurors divided into smaller juries, usually
of five hundred and one each. Such a jury was really a group
or court of temporary judges deciding cases brought before
them. The poorest citizens could not afford to leave their work
to serve on these juries, and so the people passed laws granting
pay for jury service. These citizen-courts were at last so power-
ful that they formed the final lawmaking body in the State, and,
in cooperation with the Assembly, they made the laws. The
people were indeed in control.

529. Office of Furthermore, the right to hold office was greatly extended,
to all except All citizens were permitted to hold the office of archon except
labonng class members of the laboring class entirely without property. With

one exception there was no longer any election of the higher
officers, but they were now all chosen by lot from the whole
body of eligible citizens. The result was that the men holding
the once influential positions in the State were now mere chance
" nobodies " and hence completely without influence. But at
the same time the public services now rendered by so large
a number of citizens were a means of education and of very
profitable experience. Athens was gaining a more intelligent
body of citizens than any other ancient state.

530. Poiiti- There was one kind of officer whom it was impossible to
sSii^possibie choose by lot, and that was the military commander {strategus).
to the elective 'pj^jg important office remained elective and thus open to men

strategus ^ ^ ^ .

of ability and influence, into whose hands the direction of
affairs naturally fell. There were ten of these generals, one for
each of the ten tribes established by Clisthenes (§ 476), and
they not only led the army in war but they also managed the
war department of the government, had large control of the gov-
ernment treasury and of the Empire, including foreign affairs.
The leader, or president, of this body of generals was the most
powerful man in the State, and his office was elective. It thus

The Growing Rivalry between Athens and Sparta 343

Fig. 179. The Pnyx, the Athenian Place of Assembly

The speakers' platform with its three steps is immediately in the fore-
ground. The listening Athenian citizens of the Assembly sat on the
ground now sloping away to the left, but- at that time probably level.
The ground they occupied was inclosed by a semicircular wall, begin-
ning at the further end of the straight wall seen here on the right,
extending then to the left, and returning to the straight wall again
behind our present point of view (see semicircle on plan, p. 352).
This was an open-air House of Commons, where, however, the citizen
did not send a representative but came and voted himself as he was
influenced from this platform by great Athenian leaders, like Themis-
tocles, Pericles, or Demosthenes. Note the Acropolis and the Parthe-
non, to which we look eastward from the Pnyx (see plan, p. 352). The
Areopagus is just out of range on the left (see Fig. 182)

became more and more possible for a noble with military train-
ing to make himself a strong and influential leader, and if he
was a man of persuasive eloquence, to lay out a definite series of
plans for the nation, and by his oratory to induce the Assembly
of the Athenian citizens on the Pnyx (Fig. 179) to accept them.

344

Ancient Times

531. The

leadership
of Pericles

After the fall of Cimon there came forward a handsome and
brilliant young Athenian named Pericles, a descendant of one
of the old noble families of the line of Clisthenes. He desired
to build up the splendid Athenian Empire of which Themis-
tocles had dreamed. He put himself at the head of the party
of progress and of increased power of the people. He kept
their confidence year after year, and thus secured his con-
tinued reelection as strategus. The result was that he became
the actual head of the State in power, or, as we might say,
he was the undisputed political " boss " of Athens from about
460 B.C. until his untimely death over thirty years later.

532. Com-
mercial su-
premacy of
the Greeks
after the
Persian
wars; rise
of Piraeus,
the new port
of Athens

Section 53. Commercial Development and the Open-
ing OF THE Struggle between Athens and Sparta

A period of commercial prosperity followed the Persian wars,
which gave the Greeks a leadership in trade like that of the Eng-
lish before the Great War of 19 14. Corinth and the little island
of ^gina at the front door of Attica, and visible from Athens
(Fig. 177), rapidly became the most flourishing trading cities
in Greece. They were at once followed, however, by the little
harbor town of Piraeus (Fig. 177), built by the foresight of
Themistocles as the port of Athens. Along its busy docks
were moored Greek ships from all over the Mediterranean
world, for the defeat of the Phoenicians in East and West had
broken up their merchant fleets and thrown much of their
trade into the hands of the Greeks. Here many a Greek ship
from the Black Sea, laden with grain or fish, moored along-
side the grain ships of Egypt and the mixed cargoes from
Syracuse. For Attica was no longer producing food enough
for her own need, and it was necessary to import it. The
docks were piled high v^^ith goods from the Athenian factories,
and long lines of perspiring porters were loading them into
ships bound for all the harbors of the Mediterranean. Scores
of battleships stretched far along the shores, and the busy

The Growing Rivalry between Athens and Sparta 345

shipyards and dry docks were filled with multitudes of workmen
and noisy with the sound of many hammers. -

In spite of much progress in navigation, we must not think 533. Limita-

. - tions of navi-

of these ancient ships or Greece as ' very large. A merchant- gation and
vessel carrying from two hundred and fifty to three hundred shipbuilding
tons was considered large in fifth-century Greece (contrast
Fig. 61). Moreover, the Greek ships still clung timidly to
the shore, and they rarely ventured to sea in the stormy winter
season. They had no compass or charts, there were no light-
houses, and they were often plundered by pirates, so that
commerce was still carried on at great risks. Moreover, ships
did not last as long as with us, because the Greeks had no oil
paint and the Egyptian invention of painting with hot wax was
probably too expensive.

On the other hand, the profits gained from sea-borne com- 534. Profits
merce might be very large. A vessel which reached the north merce and
shores of the Black Sea or the pirate-infested Adriatic might ^" "^^'^
sell out its cargo so profitably as to bring back to the owner
double the first cost of the goods, after paying all expenses.
Plenty of men were therefore willing to risk their capital in
such ventures, and indeed many borrowed the money to do
so. Interest was lower than in Solon's day, and money could
be borrowed at 10 and 12 per cent. The returns from manu-
facturing industry were also high, even reaching 30 per cent

To measure this increased prosperity of Athens we must 535. Wealth
not apply the scale of modem business. A fortune of ten ^" ^ages
thousand dollars was looked upon as considerable, while double
that amount was accounted great wealth. The day laborer's
wages were from six to ten cents a day, while the skilled
craftsman received as much as twenty cents a day. Greek
soldiers were ready to furnish their own arms and enter the
ranks of any foreign king at five dollars a month. Men of
intellect, like an architect, received only from twenty to thirty
cents a day, while the tuition for a course in rhetoric lasting
several years cost the student from sbcty to eighty dollars.

346

Ancient Times

536. In-
crease in
population
of Athens
and Attica

537. Money
and prices

538. Cost of
government :
salaries,
temples,
and religious
services

For nearly thirty years after the Persian wars it was easy to
obtain Athenian citizenship. Some thirty thousand strangers
therefore soon settled in Athens to share in its prosperity. Its
population rose to above a hundred thousand in the days of
Pericles (cf. § 461), while the inhabitants of Attica numbered
over two hundred thousand. This included probably eighty
thousand slaves, still the cheapest form of labor obtainable.

As a result of increased business the volume of money in
Athens had also greatly increased. The silver tribute (§ 524)
and the Attic silver mines furnished metal for additional coin-
age. In all the markets of the Mediterranean, Athenian silver
money was the leading coin, and many Persian darics of gold
(worth about five dollars) also came in. Just as with us, as
money became more plentiful its value decreased, and a given
sum would not buy as much as formerly. That is to say, prices
went up. A measure of barley cost twice as much, and a sheep
five times as much, as in Solon's day (§ 459). Nevertheless
living would be called very cheap from our point of view. Even
the well-to-do citizen did not spend over ten or twelve cents
a day in food for his family, and a man of wealth was very
extravagant if he owned furniture to the amount of two
hundred dollars.

Money had now become very necessary in carrying on the
government. Formerly service to the State had been with-
out pay. This was quite possible in a nation of peasants
and shepherds; but with the incoming of coined money and
steady employment in factories, it was no longer possible for a
private citizen to give his time to the State for nothing. Many
a citizen of Athens bought the bread his family needed for
the day with the money he had earned the day before. The
daily salaries to thousands of jurymen (§ 528) and to the mem-
bers of the Council of Five Hundred, who were also paid,
amounted to not less than a hundred thousand dollars a year.
Large sums, even sums that would be large to-day, were also
required for building the sumptuous marble temples now

The Growing Rivalry between Athens and Sparta 347

frequently dedicated to the gods ; while the offerings, feasts, and
celebrations at these temples also consumed great sums.

Greater than all the other expenses of the State, however, 539. Cost of
was the cost of war. The cost of arming citizens who could war^"^""^^" '
not undertake this expense themselves and of feeding the
army in the field, of course, fell upon the State. The war fleet
was, however, the heaviest of all such expenses. Besides the
first cost of building and equipping the battleships, there was
always the further expense of maintaining them. A trireme,
manned with about two hundred sailors and oarsmen, receiving
daily half a drachma (nearly ten cents) per man, cost nearly six
hundred dollars per month. A fleet of two hundred triremes
therefore required nearly a hundred and twenty thousand
dollars a month for wages.

The problem of securing the funds for maintaining and de- 540. income
fending a nation had become a grave one. As for Athens, mines taxes'
the Attic silver mines, however helpful, were far from furnish- ^^^Jg^^
ing enough to support the government. The bulk of the State
funds had to be raised by taxation. The triumphant democracy
disliked periodic taxes, and they assessed taxes only when the
treasury was very low, especially in war time. Besides taxes
the treasury received a good income from the customs duty on
all goods imported or exported through Piraeus. The Athenians
kept these duties low, assessing only one per cent of the value
of the goods until forced by war expenses to raise them. We
have already mentioned the contributions (tribute) of the sub-
ject states of the empire (§ 524). The total income of the
Athenian State hardly reached three quarters of a million dollars
in the days of Pericles.

Small as this seems to us of modem times, no other Greek 541. Sparta
state could raise anything like such an annual income. Least iiJferSrto
of all could Sparta hope to rival such resources. Without the -^^^^^^^
enterprise to enter the new world of comipercial competition,
Sparta clung to her old ways. She still issued only her ancient
iron money and had no silver coins. To be sure, the standing

348

Ancient Times

542. New

defenses of
Athens ;
Long Walls

543. First
war between
Athens and
Sparta (:459-
446 B.C.)

544. War

with Persia ;
the Egyptian
expedition

army of Sparta was always ready without expense to the gov-
ernment (§ 520); but when she led forth the combined armies
of the Peloponnesian League, she could not bear the expense
longer than a few weeks. The still greater expense of a large
war fleet was quite impossible either for Sparta or her League.
In so far as war was a matter of money, the commercial
growth of Athens was giving her a constantly growing supe-
riority over all other Greek states. We can understand then
with what jealousy and fear Sparta viewed Athenian prosperity.

Pericles had won favor with the people by favoring a policy
of hostility to Sparta (§ 525). Foreseeing the coming struggle
with Sparta, Pericles greatly strengthened the defenses of
Athens by inducing the people to connect the fortifications of
the city with those of the Piraeus harbor by two Long Walls,
thus forming a road completely walled in, connecting Athens
and her harbor (plan, p. 352).

Not long after Pericles gained the leadership of the people,
the inevitable war with Sparta broke out. It lasted nearly
fifteen years, with varying fortunes on both sides. The Athe-
nian merchants resented the keen commercial rivalry of ^gina,
planted as the flourishing island was at the very front door of
Attica (see map, p. 352). They. finally captured the island
after a long siege. Pericles likewise employed the Athenian
navy in blockading for years the merchant fleets of the other
great rival of Athens and friend of Sparta, Corinth (Fig. 163),
and thus brought financial ruin on its merchants.

At the same time Athens dispatched a fleet of two hun-
dred ships to assist Egypt, which had revolted against Persia.
The Athenians were thus fighting both Sparta and Persia
for years. The entire Athenian fleet in Egypt was lost. This
loss so weakened the Athenian navy that the treasury of the
Delian League was no longer safe in the little island of Delos,
against a possible ^ea raid by the Persians. Pericles therefore
shifted the treasury from Delos to Athens, an act which made
the city more than ever the capital of an Athenian empire.

The Growing Rivalry between A thefts and Sparta 349

When peace was concluded (445 B.C.) all that Athens was 545. Peace
able to retain was the island of ^gina, though at the same and Persia
time she gained control of the large island of Euboea. It was
agreed that the peace should continue for thirty years. Thus
ended what is often called the First Peloponnesian War with
the complete exhaustion of Athens as well as of her enemies in
the Peloponnesus. Pericles had not shown himself a great
naval or military commander in this war. The Athenians had
also arranged a peace with Persia, over forty years after Mara-
thon. But the rivalry between Athens and Sparta for the
leadership of the Greeks was still unsettled. The struggle
was to be continued in another long and weary Peloponnesian
War. Before we proceed with the story of this fatal struggle
we must glance briefly at the new and glorious Athens now
growing up under the leadership of Pericles.

QUESTIONS

Section 51. Describe the Spartan State. What can you say of
the reasons for rivalry between Athens and Sparta.? What did
Themistocles now do.?

Section 52. What combination did Athens now make with the
eastern Greek cities ? What part did Aristides play 1 To what might
the Delian League easily lead.? What policy did Cimon favor?
What was Themistocles' attitude toward Cimon's policy? What
then happened to Themistocles? to Cimon? What new victories
did the people gain? What new council arose, and how did it
govern? How could a statesman still hold the leadership? Who
now became the leader of the people's party ?

Section 53. What happened to Greek business after the Per-
sian War ? Discuss navigation ; business profits. What can you say
of the scale of values as compared with to-day ? What happened to
the population of Athens? How were prices affected? What were
the chief expenses of the Athenian State? its chief sources of in-
come ? Could other states raise as much ? Sketch the First Pelopon-
nesian War.

CHAPTER XV

athens in the age of pericles

Section 54. Society, the Home, Education and
Training of Young Citizens

546. Athe-
nian society :
the wealthy
classes

As we have seen, the population of Attica was made up of
citizens, foreigners, and slaves. In a mixed crowd there would
usually be among every ten people about four slaves, one or
two foreigners, and the rest free Athenians (see § 536). A large
group of wealthy citizens lived at Athens upon the income from
their lands. They continued to be the aristocracy of the nation,
for land was still the most respectable form of wealth. The
wealthy manufacturer hastened to buy land and join the landed
aristocracy. The social position of his family might thus become
an influential one, but it could not compare with that of a noble.

Note. The above headpiece gives us a glimpse into the house of a bride the
day after the wedding. At the right, leaning against a couch, is the bride. Before
her are two young friends, one sitting, the other standing, both playing with a
tame bird. Another friend approaches carrying a tall and beautiful painted vase
as a wedding gift. At the left a visitor arranges flowers in two painted vases,
while another lady, adjusting her garment, is looking on. The walls are hung
with festive wreaths. The furniture of such a house was usually of wood, but
if the owner's wealth permitted, it was adorned with ivory, silver, and gold. It
consisted chiefly of beds, like the couch above, chairs (see' also Fig. 170), foot-
stools (as at foot of couch above), small individual tables, and clothing chests
which took the place of closets.

Athens in the Age of Pericles 351

On the other hand, anyone who actually performed manual 547. Athe-
labor was looked down upon as without social station. Athens {he"poo?er^'
was a great beehive of skilled craftsmen and small shopkeepers, ^^^^sses
These classes were beginning to organize into guilds or unions
of masons, carpenters, potters, jewelers, and many others —
organizations somewhat like our labor unions. Below them was
an army of unskilled laborers, free men, but little better than
slaves, like the army of porters who swarmed along the docks
at Piraeus. All these classes contained many citizens. Never-
theless the majority of the Athenian citizens were still the
farmers and peasants throughout Attica, although the Persian
devastation (§§ 512, 516) had seriously reduced the amount of
land still cultivated.

The hasty rebuilding of Athens after the Persians had burned 548. Athe-
it did not produce any noticeable changes in the houses, nor
were there any of great size or splendor. Since the appearance
of the first European houses (§ 26) many thousand years had
passed, but there were still no beautiful houses anywhere in
Europe, such as we found on the Nile (Fig. 51). The one-
story front of even a wealthy man's house was simply a blank
wall, usually of sun-dried brick, rarely of broken stone masonry.
Often without any windows, it showed no other opening than
the door, but a house of two stories might have a small window
or two in the upper story. The door led into a court open to
the sky and surrounded by a porch with columns. Here in the
mild climate of Greece the family could spend much of their
time as in a sitting room. In the middle stood an altar of the •
household Zeus, the protector of the family ; while around the
court opened a number of doors leading to a living room, sleep-
ing rooms, dining room, storerooms, and also a tiny kitchen.

This Greek house lacked all conveniences. There was no 549. Lack of
chimney, and the smoke from the kitchen fire, though intended in the Athe-
to drift up through a hole in the roof, choked the room or "»an house
floated out the door. In winter gusty drafts filled the house,
for many doorways were without doors, and glass in the form

352

Ancient Times

550. Deco-
ration and
equipment

551. Streets
of Athens

of flat panes for the windows was still unknown. In the mild
Greek climate, however, a pan of burning charcoal, called a
brazier, furnished enough heat to temper the chilly air of a
room. Lacking windows, the ground-floor rooms depended en-
tirely on the doors opening on the court for light. At night
the dim light of an olive-oil lamp was all that was available.
There was no plumbing or piping of any kind in the house,
no drainage, and consequently no sanitary arrangements. The
water supply was brought in jars by slaves from the nearest
well or flowing spring.

The floors were simply of dirt, with a surface of pebbles
tramped and beaten hard. There was no oil paint, and a plain
water-color wash, such as we call calcimine, might be used on
the inside, but if used on the outside would soon wash off,
exposing the mud brick. The simplicity and bareness of the
house itself were in noticeable contrast with the beautiful furni-
ture which the Greek craftsmen were now producing (headpiece,
p. 350; see also the beautiful chairs in Fig. 170). There were
many metal utensils, among which the ladies' hand mirrors of
polished bronze were common ; and most numerous of all were
lovely painted jars, vases, and dishes, along with less preten-
tious pottery forming the household " crockery." For it will
be remembered that Greek pottery was the most beautiful ever
produced by ancient man (Fig. 164, and headpiece, p. 350).

The view from the Acropolis over the sea of low flat roofs
disclosed not a single chimney, but revealed a much larger city
•than formerly. Though not laid out in blocks, the city was
about ten modem city blocks wide and several more in length.
The streets were merely lanes or alleys, narrow and crooked,
winding between the bare mud-brick walls of the low houses
standing wall to wall. There was no pavement, nor any side-
walk, and a stroll through the town after a rain meant wading
through the mud. All household rubbish and garbage was
thrown directly into the street, and there was no system of
sewage. When one passed a two-story house he might hear a

Central Greece and Athens

Athens in the Age of Pericles

353

warning cry, and spring out of the way barely in time to escape
being deluged with sweepings or filth thrown from a second-
story window. The few wells and fountains fed by city water
pipes did not furnish enough
water to flush the streets, and
there was no system of street
cleaning. During the hot sum-
mers of the south, therefore,
Athens was not a healthful
place of residence.

All Athens lived out of doors.
Athenian life was beautifully
simple and unpretentious, es-
pecially since richly embroidered
and colored oriental garments
had passed away. Almost all
citizens now appeared in the
simple white garments which
we of modem times have come
to associate with the classical
Greeks. Gorgeous costume thus
disappeared in Greece, as it did
among us in the days of our
great great-grandfathers. Never-
theless, the man of elegant
habits gained a practiced hand
in draping his costume, and was
proud of the gracefulness and
the sweeping lines with which
he could arrange its folds
(Fig. 1 80).

The women were less in-

FiG. 180. Statue of the
Tragic Poet Sophocles

The great poet stands in thought-
ful repose in an attitude of ease,
which incidentally reveals the
wonderful beauty of a well-draped
Greek costume (§ 552). The figure
is probably our most beautiful
Greek portrait, and as a work
of art illustrates the sculpture of
the fourth century B.C., almost a
century after Pericles

clined to give up the old finery, for unhappily they had little
to think about but clothes and housekeeping (Fig. 170). For
Greek citizens still kept their wives in the background, and

553. Women

354

Ancient Times

554. Child-
hood and

school

$55. Sub-
jects taught
at school

they were more than ever mere housekeepers. They had no
share in the intellectual life of the men, could not appear at
their social meetings, where serious conversation was carried
on; nor were they permitted to witness the athletic games at
Olympia. Their position was even worse than in the Age of
the Tyrants (§ 480), and a poetess like Sappho never appeared
again among the later Greeks.

The usual house had no garden and the children therefore
played in the court, running about with toy cart and dog
or enjoying a swing at the hands of the nurse. There were
no schools for the girls, but when the boy was old enough
he was sent to school in charge of an old slave called a
" pedagogue " (paidagogos), which really means " leader of a
child." He carried the boy's books and outfit. There were
no schools maintained by the state and no schoolhouses.
School was conducted in his* own house by some poor citizen,
who had perhaps lost his means, or by some other poor per-
son, perhaps an old Soldier or even a foreigner. In any case
the teacher was much looked down upon. He received his
pay from the parents ; but there was a board of state officials
appointed to look after the schools and to see that nothing
improper was taught.

Without special education for his work, the teacher merely
taught the old-time subjects he had learned in his own youth
without change (§ 480). Proficiency in music was regarded
very seriously by the Greeks, not merely for entertainment but
also and chiefly as an influence toward good conduct. Besides
learning to read and write as of old (§ 480 and Fig. 181), the
pupil learned by heart many passages from the old poets, and
here and there a boy with a good memory could repeat the en-
tire Iliad and Odyssey. On the other hand, the boys still
escaped all instruction in mathematics, geography, or natural
science. This was _ doubtless a welcome exemption, for the
masters were severe, and the Greek boy hated both school
and schoolmaster.

Athens in the Age of Pericles

355

When the Athenian lad reached the age of eighteen years 556. Attain-
and left school, he was received as a citizen, providing that citizenship
both his parents were of Athenian citizenship. The oath which

Fig. 181. An Athenian School in the Age of Pericles

These scenes are painted around the center of a shallow bowl, hence
their peculiar shape. In A we see at the left a music teacher seated at
his lyre, giving a lesson to the lad seated before him. In the middle sits
a teacher of reading and literature, holding an open roll (Fig. 223) from
which the boy standing before him is learning a poem. Behind the
boy sits a slave (pedagogue) (§ 554) who brought him to school and
carried his books. In B we have at the left a singing lesson, aided by
the flute to fix the tones. In the middle the master sits correcting an
exercise handed him by the boy standing before him, while behind the
boy sits the slave (pedagogue) as before

he took was a solemn reminder of the obligations he now
assumed. It had been composed by Solon, and it called upon
the youth " never to disgrace his sacred arms ; never to forsake

3S6

Ancient Times

557. Incom-
ing citizens'
military
service

558. Athletic
grounds :
Academy and
Lyceum

559. The ath-
letic events of
the Greeks

his comrade in the ranks, but to fight for the sacred temples
and the common welfare, whether alone or with others ; to
leave his country not in a worse, but in a better state than he
found it ; to obey the magistrates and the laws and to defend
them against attack; finally to hold in honor the religion of
his country."

The youth then spent a year in garrison duty at the harbor
of Piraeus, where he was put through military drill. Then at
nineteen the young recruits received spear and shield, given to
each by the State. Thereupon they marched to the theater and
entered the orchestra circle, where they were presented to the
citizens of Athens assembled in the theater before the play.
Another year of garrison service on the frontier of Attica
usually completed the young man's military service, although
some of the recruits, whose means permitted, joined the small
body of select Athenian cavalry.

On completion of his military service, if the wealth and
station of his family permitted, the Athenian youth was more
than ever devoted to the new athletic fields in the beautiful
open country outside the city walls. On the north of Athens,
outside the Dipylon Gate, was the field known as the Academy.
It had been adorned by Cimon, who gave great attention to
the olive groves, and, with its shady walks and seats for loungers,
it became a place where the Athenians loved to spend their idle
hours. On the east of the city there was another similar athletic
ground known as the Lyceum. The later custom of holding
courses of instructive lectures in these places (§ 759) finally
resulted in giving to the words " academy " and " lyceum " the
associations which they now possess for us.

The chief events were boxing, wrestling, running, jump-
ing, casting the javelin, and throwing the disk. Omitting
the boxing, the remaining events formed a fivefold match
called the pentathlon^ which it was a great honor to win at
Olympia. The earliest contest establishec] at Olympia seems
to have been a two-hundred-yard dash, which the Greeks

Athens in the Age of Pericles 357

called a stadion, that is, six hundred Greek feet. Many other
contests were added to this, and in the age of Pericles, box-
ing, or boxing and wrestling combined, the pentathlon, chariot
racing, and horseback races made up a program in which all
Greek youths were anxious to gain distinction (§479). A
generation later some of the philosophers severely criticized
the Greeks for giving far too much of their time and attention
to athletic pursuits.

But other pastimes less worthy were common. An hour or 560. Social
two of gossip with his friends in the market place often preceded diversions
the Greek youth's daily visit to the athletic grounds. The after-
noon might be passed in dawdling about in the barber shop
or dropping in at some drinking resort to shake dice or venture
a few drachmas in other games of chance. As the shadows
lengthened in the market place he frequently joined a company
of young men at dinner at the house of a friend. Often followed
by heavy drinking of wine and much singing with the lyre, such
a dinner might break up in a drunken carouse leading to harum-
scarum escapades upon the streets, that in our time would cause
the arrest of the company for disorderly conduct.

Section 55. Higher Education, Science, and the
Training gained by State Service

On the other hand, there were serious-minded men, to whom 561. Coming
such dinners meant delightful conversation with their com- sophtsts
panions on art, literature, music, or personal conduct. Such
life among the Athenians had now been quickened by the
appearance of more modern private teachers called Sophists,
a class of new and clever-witted lecturers who wandered from
city to city. Many a bright youth who had finished his music,
reading, and writing at the old-fashioned private school (§ 554)
annoyed his father by insisting that such schooling was not
enough and by demanding money to pay for a course of
lectures delivered by one of these new teachers.

358

Ancient Times

562. Higher
education
offered by
the Sophists

563. The

intellectual
revolution ;
chasm be-
tween young
and old

For the first time a higher education was thus open to young
men who had hitherto thought of little more than a victory in
the Olympic games or a fine appearance when parading with
the crack cavalry of Athens. The appearance of these new
teachers therefore marked a new age in the history of the
Greeks, but especially in that of Athens. In the first place,
the Sophists recognized the importance of effective public
speaking in addressing the large citizen juries (§ 528) or in
speaking before the Assembly of the people. The Sophists
therefore taught rhetoric and oratory with great success, and
many a father who had no gift of speech had the pleasure of
seeing his son a practiced public speaker. It was through the
teaching of the Sophists also that the first successful writing
of Greek prose began. At the same time they really founded
the study of language, which was yet to become grammar
(§ 753). They also taught mathematics and astronomy, and
the young men of Athens for the first time began to learn a
little natural science. Thus the truths which Greek philosophers
had begun to observe in the days of Thales (§§ 492-493) were,
after a century and a half, beginning to spread among the
people.

In these new ideas the fathers were unable to follow their
sons. When a father of that day found in the hands of his son
a book by one of the great Sophists, which began with a state-
ment doubting the existence of the gods, the new teachings
seemed impious. The old-fashioned citizen could at least vote
for the banishment of such impious teachers and the burning
of their books, although he heard that they were read aloud in
the houses of the greatest men of Athens. Indeed, some of the
leading Sophists were friends of Pericles, who stepped in and
tried to help them when they were prosecuted for their teach-
ings. The revolution which had taken place in the mind of
Thales (§ 495) was now taking place in the minds of ever-
increasing numbers of Greeks, and the situation was yet to
grow decidedly worse in the opinion of old-fashioned folk.

Athens in the Age of Pericles 359

In spite of the spread of knowledge due to the Sophists, the 564. Lack
average Athenian's acquaintance with science was still very knowle%e
limited. This gave him great trouble in the measurement of sho^n?n time
time. He still called the middle of the forenoon the " time of measurement
full market," and the Egyptian shadow clock in the market
place had not yet led him to speak of an hour of the day by
number^ as the Egyptians had been doing for a thousand years.
When it was necessary to limit the length of a citizen's speech
before the law-court, it was done by allowing him to speak as
long as it took a given measure of water to run out of a jar
with a small hole in it. The Greeks still used the moon-months,
and they were accustomed to insert an extra month every third,
fifth, and eighth year (§ 150). To be sure, they had often seen
on the Pnyx, where the Assembly met (Fig. 179), a strange-
looking tablet bearing a new calendar, set up by a builder and
engineer named Meton. This man had computed the length of
the year with only half an hour's error. He had then devised
his new calendar with a year still made up of moon-months, but
so cleverly arranged that the last day of the last moon-month in
every nineteenth year would also be the last day of the year as
measured by the sun. But all this was quite beyond the average
citizen's puzzled mind. The archons too shook their heads at
it and would have nothing to do with it. The old inconvenient,
inaccurate moon-month calendar, with three thirteen-month
years in every eight years, was quite good enough for them
and continued in use.

Individual scientists continued to make important discoveries. 565. Prog-
One of them now taught that the sun was a glowing mass of [ronomytnd
stone " larger than the Peloponnesus." He maintained also geography
that the moon received its light from the sun, that it had
mountains and valleys like the earth, and that it was inhabited
by living creatures. Travel was difficult, for there were no
passenger ships. Except rough carts or wagons, there were
no conveyances by land. The roads were bad, and the
traveler went on foot or rode a horse. Nevertheless, Greeks

36o

Ancient Times

with means were now beginning to travel more frequently.
This, however, was for information; travel for pleasure was
still a century and a half in the future. From long journeys
in Egypt, and other Eastern countries, Herodotus returned with
much information regarding these lands. His map (p. 360)
showed that the Red Sea connected with the Indian Ocean,
a fact unknown to his predecessor Hecataeus (see map, p. 319).

Map of the World according to Herodotus

566. Prog-
ress in
medicine

The scientists were still much puzzled by the cold of the north
and the warmth of the south, a curious difference which they
could not yet explain.

Although without the microscope or the assistance of chemis-
try, medicine nevertheless made progress. In the first place, the
Greek physicians rejected the older belief that disease was
caused by evil demons, and endeavored to find the natural
causes of the ailment. To do this they sought to understand
the organs of the body. They had already discovered that the
brain was the organ of thought, but the arterial system, the

Athens in the Age of Pericles 361

circulation of the blood, and the nervous system were still en-
tirely unknown. Without a knowledge of the circulation of the
blood, surgery was unable to attempt amputation, but other-
wise it made much progress. The greatest physician of the
time was Hippocrates, and he became the founder of scientific
medicine. The fame of Greek medicine was such that the
Persian king called a Greek physician to his court.

Just at the close of Pericles' life, in the midst of national 567. Prog-
calamities, the historian Herodotus, who had long been at work history
on his history, finally published his great work. It was a history ^^^f^^y^^
of the world so told that the glorious leadership of Athens
would be clear to all Greeks and would show them that to her
the Hellenes owed their deliverance from Persia. Throughout
Greece it created a deep impression, and so tremendous was its
effect in Athens that, in spite of the financial drain of war, the
Athenians voted Herodotus a reward of ten talents, some
twelve thousand dollars. In this earliest history of the world
which has come down to us, Herodotus traced the course of
events as he believed them to be directed by the will of the
gods, and as prophesied in their divine oracles. There was
little or no effort to explain historical events as the result of
natural processes.

Besides the instruction received from the Sophists by many 568. Edu-
young men, their constant share in public affairs was giving discipline
them an experience which greatly assisted in producing an in- |^"| ^^^^
telligent body of citizens. In the Council of Five Hundred, citi-
zens learned to carry on the daily business of the government.
On some days also as many as six thousand citizens might be
serving as jurors (§ 528). This service alone meant that one
citizen in five was engaged in duties which sharpened his wits
and gave him some training in legal and business affairs. At
the same time such duties kept constantly in the citizen's mind
his obligations toward the State and community.

This led many citizens to surprisingly generous contributions.
It was not uncommon for a citizen to undertake the entire

362

Ancient Times

569. Volun-
tary contri-
butions by
citizens

570-

feast

State

equipment of a warship except the hull and spars, though this
service may have been compulsory. At national festivals a
wealthy man would sometimes furnish a costly dinner for all the
members of his " tribe." The choruses for public performances,
especially at the theater, were organized by private citizens, who
paid for their training and for their costumes at great expense
(Fig. 190). We know of one citizen who spent in the voluntary
support of feasts and choruses in nine years no less than four-
teen thousand dollars, a considerable fortune in those days.

Public festivals maintained by the State also played an im-
portant part in the lives of all Athenians. Every spring at the
ancient Feast of Dionysus (§ 483) the greatest play-writers each
submitted three tragedies and a comedy to be played in the
theater for a prize given by the State. All Athens streamed to
the theater to see them. Many other State festivals, celebrated
with music and gayety, filled the year with holidays so numerous
that they fell every six or seven days. The great State feast,
called the Panathencea^ occurred every four years. A brilliant
procession made up of the smart young Athenian cavalry,
groups of dignified government officials, priests and sacrificial
animals, marched with music and rejoicing across the market
place, carrying a beautiful new robe embroidered by the women
of Athens for the goddess Athena. The procession marched to
the Acropolis, where the robe was delivered to the goddess
amid splendid sacrifices and impressive ceremonies. Contests
in music and in athletic games, war dances and a regatta in
the channel off Salamis, served to furnish entertainment for the
multitude which flocked to Athens for the great feast.

571. The

higher life
of imperial
Athens; the
glorified
State

Section 56. Art and Literature

Although the first fifteen years of the leadership of Pericles
were burdened with the Spartan and Persian wars, the higher
life of Athens continued to unfold. Under influences like those
we have been discussing, a new vision of the glory of the State,

Athens in the Age of Pericles 363

discerned nowhere else in the world before this age, caught the
imagination of poet and painter, of sculptor and architect ; and
not of these alone, but also of the humblest artisan and trades-
man, as all classes alike took part in the common life of the
community. Music, the drama, art, and architecture were pro-
foundly inspired by this new and exalted vision of the State, and
the citizen found great works of art so inspired thrust into the
foreground of his life.

We can still follow the Athenian citizen and note a few of 572. Painting
the noble monuments that met his eye as he went about the
new Athens which Pericles was creating. When he wandered
into the market place and stood chatting with his friends under
the shade of the plane trees, he found at several points colon-
naded porches looking out upon the market. One of these,
which had been presented to the city by Cimon's family, was
called the " Painted Porch " ; for the wall behind the columns
bore paintings by Polygnotus, an artist from one of the is-
land possessions of Athens, a gift of the painter to the Athe-
nians, depicting their glorious victory at Marathon. Here in
splendid panorama was a vision of the heroic devotion of the
fathers. In the thick of the fray the citizen might pick out the
figure of Themistocles, of Miltiades, of Callimachus, who fell
in the battle, of ^Eschylus the great tragic poet. He could see
the host of the fleeing Persians and perhaps hear some old
man tell how the brother of ^schylus seized and tried to stop
one of the Persian boats drawn up on the beach, and how a
desperate Persian raised his ax and slashed off the hand of the
brave Greek. Perhaps among the group of eager listeners he
noticed one questioning the veteran carefully and making full
notes of all that he could learn from the graybeard. The ques-
tioner was Herodotus, collecting from survivons the tale of the
Persian wars for his great history (§ 567).

Behind the citizen rose a low hill, known as " Market Hill," 573. Lack of
around which were grouped plain, bare government buildings, for^govem"^*
Here were the assembly rooms of the Areopagus (§ 528) and ment offices

3^4

Athens in the Age of Pericles

365

the Council of Five Hundred. The Council's Committee of
Fifty (§ 528), carrying on the current business of the govern-
ment, also had its offices here. The citizen recalled how, as a
member of this Council, he had lived here for over a month
while serving on that committee and had taken his meals in
the building before him, at the expense of the State, along
with the Athenian victors in the Olympic games and other
deserving citizens who were thus pensioned by the govern-
ment. In spite of the growing sentiment for the glory of the
State, these plain buildings, like the Athenian houses, were all
built of sun-dried mud brick or, at most, of rough rubble. The
idea of great and beautiful buildings for the offices of the
government was still unknown in the Mediterranean world,
and no such building yet existed in Europe.

The sentiment toward the State was so mingled with rever- 574. The
ence for the gods who protected the State that patriotism buildings
was itself a deeply religious feeling. Hence the great public ^^e temples
buildings of Greece were temples and not quarters for the
offices of the government. As the citizen turned from the
Painted Porch, therefore, he might observe crossing the market

* In this view we stand inside the wall of Themistocles, near the
Dipylon Gate in the Potters' Quarter (see plan, p. 352). In the fore-
ground is the temple of Theseus, the legendary unifier of Attica, whom
all Athenians honored as a god and to whom this temple was long
supposed (perhaps wrongly) to have been erected. It is built of Pen-
telic marble and was finished a few years after the death of Pericles;
but now, after twenty-three hundred years or more, it is still the best
preserved of all ancient Greek buildings. Above the houses, at the ex-
treme right, may be seen one corner of the hill called the Areopagus
(see plan, p. 352), often called Mars' Hill. It was probably here that the
apostle Paul (§ 1068) preached in Athens (see Acts xvii). The buildings
we see on the Acropolis are all ruins of the structures erected after the
place had been laid waste by the Persians (§512). The Parthenon (§ 576)^
in the middle of the hill (see Fig. 183), shows the gaping hole caused
by the explosion of a Turkish powder magazine ignited by a Venetian
shell in 1687, when the entire central portion of the building was blown
out. The space between the temple, of Theseus, the Areopagus, and
the Acropolis was largely occupied by the market place of Athens
(§ 572, and plan, p. 352).

366

Ancient Times

576. The
entrance to
the Acropolis
and the
Parthenon

many a creaking wagon, heavily loaded with white blocks
of marble for a new and still unfinished temple of Theseus
(Fig. 182), the hero-god, who, as the Athenians thought, had
once united Attica into a single nation.

Above him towers the height of the Acropolis, about one
thousand feet in length, two of our city blocks (Figs. 182 and
183). There, on its summit, had always been the dwelling
place of Athena, whose arm was ever stretched out in protec-
tion over her beloved Athens. But for long years after the re-
pulse of the Persians, the Acropolis rose smoke-blackened over
the rebuilt houses of the city, and no temple of Athena ap-
peared to replace the old building of Pisistratus, which the
Persians had burned. Now at last Pericles has undertaken the
restoration of the ancient shrines on a scale of magnificence
and beauty before unknown anywhere in the Greek world. His
sumptuous plans have demanded an expense of about two
and a quarter millions of dollars, a sum far exceeding any
such public outlay ever heard of among the Greeks. As he
passes the Market Hill, where the Areopagus meets, the citizen
remembers the discontented mutterings of the old men in this
ancient Council as they heard of these vast expenses, and he
smiles in satisfaction as he reflects that this unprogressive old
body, once so powerful in Athenian affairs, has been deprived
of all power to obstruct the will of the people. From here he
also catches a glimpse of the Pnyx (Fig. 179), where he has
heard Pericles make one eloquent speech after another in sup-
port of his new building plans before the assembly of the
people, and he recalls with what enthusiasm the citizens voted
to adopt them.

As he looks up at the gleaming marble shafts, he feels that
the architectural splendor now crowning the Acropolis is the
work of the Athenian people, a world of new beauty in the
creation of which every Athenian citizen has had a voice.
Here before him rise the imposing marble colonnades of the
magnificent monumental entrance to the Acropolis (Fig. 183).

Athens in the Age of Pericles

367

Fig. 183. Restoration of the Athenian Acropolis

The lower entrance {A) is of Roman date. Beyond it we have on the
right the graceful little Temple of Victory (Z>, and see headpiece, p. 378),
while before us rises the colonnaded entrance building (6") designed
by Mnesicles (§ 576). As we pass through it we stand beside the colossal
bronze statue of Athena {D) by Phidias (§ 577), beyond which at the
left is the ancient sanctuary of the Erechtheum (/^and § 644). To the
right, along the south edge of the hill, is the wonderful temple of the
Parthenon {E) (Fig. 185, and Plate IV, p. 380). Its farther corner looks
down upon the theater {H) (Fig. 189). The other theater-like building (/)
in the foreground is a concert hall, built by Herodes Atticus, a wealthy
citizen, in Roman times (second century A.D.). G is the foundation of an
ancient temple (now destroyed) older than the present Parthenon

It is still unfinished, and the architect Mnesicles, with a roll of
plans under his arm, is perhaps at the moment directing a group
of workmen to their task. He is beginning to employ a new
style of column, called the Ionic (Fig. 184); it is lighter and
more ornate than the stately Doric/ The tinkle of many distant

Fig. 184. The Ionic Column and its Oriental Predecessors
(After Puchstein)

A is Si column of wood as used in houses and shrines in Egypt (fifteenth
century B.C.); notice at the top of ^ the Hly with the ends of the petals
rolled over in spirals called volutes. B is part of a wall with beauti-
fully decorative designs in colored glazed brick from the throne room
of Nebuchadnezzar at Babylon (Fig. 1 10) ; on this wall we see the same
lily design appearing twice. D shows us a capital used in the begin-
nings of Greek architecture in Asia Minor, with the lily petals forming
the volutes rolled further over but still showing its relationship with A.
This process is carried so far in F, a capital dug up on the Acropolis
of Athens, that we lose sight of the lily. H finally shows us the fully
developed Ionic column, in which the volutes hardly resemble any
longer the lily from which they came. This column {H) is taken from
the colonnade of the Temple of Victory on the Acropolis of Athens
(headpiece, p. 378). Examples of this style of column are now common
in our own public buildings

368

Athens in the Age of Pericles 369

hammers from the height above tells where the stonecutters are
shaping the marble blocks for the still unfinished Parthenon, a
noble temple dedicated to Athena (Figs. 183, 185, and Plate IV,
p. 380) ; and there, too, the people often see Pericles intently-
inspecting the building, as Phidias the sculptor and Ictinus the
architect of the building pace up and down the inclosure, ex-
plaining to him the progress of the work. In these wondrous
Greek buildings architect and sculptor work hand in hand.

Phidias is the greatest of the sculptors at Athens. In a long
band of carved marble extending entirely around the four sides
of the Parthenon, at the top inside the colonnades (Plate IV,
p. 380), Phidias and his pupils have portrayed, as in a glorified
vision, the sovereign people of Athens moving in the stately
procession (Fig. 186) of the Pan-Athenaic festival (§ 570).
To be sure, these are not individual portraits of actual Athenian
folk, but only types which lived in the exalted vision of the
sculptor, and not on the streets of Athens. But such sculpture
had never been seen before. How different is the supreme
beauty of these perfect human forms from the cruder figures
which adorned the temple burned by the Persians. The citizen
has seen the shattered fragments of these older works cleared
away and covered with rubbish when the architects leveled off
the summit of the Acropolis.^ Inside the new temple gleams
the colossal figure of Athena, wrought by the cunning hand of
Phidias in gold and ivory. Even from the city below the citizen
can discern, touched with bright colors, the heroic figures of
the gods with which Phidias has filled the triangular gable ends
of the building (Fig. 185). Out in the open area behind the
colonnaded entrance rises another great work of Phidias, a
colossal bronze statue of Athena, seventy feet high as it stands
on its tall base (Fig. 183, D). With shield and spear the goddess
stands, the gracious protectress of Athens, and the glittering

1 Till recently they lay buried under the rubbish on the slope (Fig. 182).
The excavations of the Greek government have recovered them, and they are
now in the Acropolis Museum at Athens.

370

Ancient Times

point of her gilded spear can be seen shining like a beacon
far across the land, even by the sailors as they round the
southern tip of Attica (see map, p. 352) and sail homeward.

Fig. 185. Restoration of the Parthenon, as it was in the
Fifth Century b.c. (After Thiersch and Michaelis)

This is the noble temple of Athena erected on the Acropolis of Athens
(Fig. 183, E) by Pericles with the architect Ictinus and the sculptor
Phidias (§ 576). The restoration shows us the wonderful beauty of
the Doric colonnades as they were when they left the hands of the
builders. In Plate IV, p. 380, we gain a glimpse of the same colon-
nades as they are to-day, after the explosion of the Turkish powder
magazine, the effect of which can be seen in Fig. 182. The gable
ends each contained a triangular group of sculpture depicting the
birth of Athena and her struggle with Poseidon, god of the sea, for
possession of Attica. The wonderful frieze of Phidias (Fig. 186 and
§ 577) extended around the building inside the colonnades at the top

of the wall

In spite of the Sophists (§ 563), these are the gods to whom
the faith of the Athenian people still reverently looks up. Have
not Athena and these gods raised the power of Athens to the

^g-

'^n^

^^^-"

i o

o o
■5 ^

'^^. n ^

6 ex

S .S
o S

-a (u

C3 f-H

O »-i
^ (U

l«

t ,

Fig. 187. Praxiteles' Figure of Hermes playing with the
Child Dionysus
This wonderful statue was discovered in the ruins of the Hera temple at
Olympia (headpiece, p. 295), and is one of the few original works of the
great Greek sculptors found in Greece. Nearly all such Greek originals
have perished, and we know them only in Roman copies (§ 1053). In his up-
lifted right hand (now broken off) the god probably held a bunch of grapes,
with which he was amusing the child (§ 648)

Athens in the Age of Pet ides 371

imperial position which she now occupies? Do not all the
citizens recall ^schylus' drama "The Persians"? It told
the story of the glorious victory of Salamis, and in it the
memories of the great deliverance from Persian conquest were
enshrined. How that tremendous day of Salamis was made
to live again in the imposing picture which the poet's genius
brought before them, disclosing the mighty purpose of the gods
to save Hellas!

As he skirts the sheer precipice of the Acropolis the citizen 579. Theater
reaches the theater (see plan, p. 352, and Fig. 183, ZT), where ^" P^^P^
he finds the people are already entering, for the Feast of Diony-
sus (§ 570) has arrived. Only yesterday he and his neighbors
received from the State treasury the money for their admission.
It is natural that they should feel that the theater and all that
is done there belong to the people, and not the less as the
citizen looks down upon the orchestra circle and recognizes
his friends and neighbors and their sons in the chorus for
that day's performance. The seats are of wood, and they
occupy the slope at the foot of the Acropolis. Hence they
are not elevated on timbers, and there is no danger of their
falling and killing the spectators as they once did when the
theater was a temporary structure in the market place, in the
days of the citizen's grandfather. All the citizens have turned
out, including some less worthy and intelligent, who do not
hesitate to indulge in cat-calls, or pelt the actors with food, if
the play displeases them. The play would seem strange enough
to us, for there is little or no scenery ; and the actors, who are
always men, wear grotesque masks, a survival of old days
(§ 483). The narrative is largely carried on in song by the
chorus (§ 483), but this is varied by the dialogue of the actors,
and the whole is not unlike an opera.

A play of Sophocles (Fig. 180) is on, and the citizen's neigh- 580. Sopho-
bor in the next seat leans over to tell him how as a lad many ^ ^^
years ago he stood on the shore of Salamis, whither his family
had fled (§ 5 1 2), and as they looked down upon the destruction

372

Ancient Times

;8x. Euripi-
ies

of the Persian fleet this same Sophocles, a boy of sixteen, was
in the crowd looking on with the rest. How deeply must the
events of that tragic day have sunk into the poet's soul ! For
does he not see the will of the gods in all that happens to men ?
Does he not celebrate the stern decree of Zeus everywhere
hanging over human life, at the same time that he uplifts his

audience to adore the splen-
dor of Zeus, however dark
the destiny he lays upon
men ? For Sophocles still
believes in the gods, and is
no friend of the Sophists.
Hence the citizen feels that
Sophocles is a veritable voice
of the people, exalting the
old gods in . the new time.
Moreover, in place of the
former two, Sophocles has
three actors in his plays, a
change which makes them
more interesting and full of
action. Even old ^schylus
yielded to this innj>vation
once before he died. Yet too
much innovation is also un-
welcome to the citizen.
The citizen feels this es-
pecially if it is one of the new sensational plays of Euripides
which is presented. Euripides (Fig. i88) is the son of a farmer
who lives over on the island of Salamis (Fig. 177). He has for
some time been presenting plays at the spring competition
(§ 570). He is a friend and companion of the Sophists, and
in matters of religion his mind is shadowed with doubts.
His new plays are all inwrought with problems and mental
struggle regarding the gods, and they have raised a great

Fig. 188. Portrait of
Euripides

The name of the poet {§ 581) is en-
graved in Greek letters along the
lower edge of the bust

Athens in the Age of Pericles 373

many questions and doubts which the citizen has never been
able to banish from bis own mind since he heard them.
The citizen determines that he will use all the influence he has
to prevent the plays of Euripides from winning the prize. In-
deed, Sophocles suits all the old-fashioned folk, and it is very
rarely that Euripides has been able to carry off the prize, in
spite of his great ability. The citizen feels some anxiety as he
realizes that his own son and most of the other young men of
his set are enthusiastic admirers of Euripides. They constantly
read his plays and talk them over with the Sophists.

The great tragedies were given in the morning, and in the 582. Com
afternoon the people were ready for less serious entertainment,
such as the comedy offered. Out of the old-time masques and
burlesque frolics of the village communities at country feasts
the comedy had developed into a stage performance, with all
the uproarious antics of the unbridled comedian. The play-
writer did not hesitate to introduce the greatest dignitaries of
the State. Even Pericles was not spared, and great philosophers,
or serious-minded writers like Euripides, were shown in absurd
caricatures and made irresistibly ridiculous on the stage, while the
multitudes of Athens vented their delight in roars of laughter
mingled with shouts and cheers. Parodies on great passages of
literature, too, were sure of a quick response, so keen was the
wit of the Athenians and so widespread the acquaintance of the
people with the literature which they had inherited.

When all was over they must wait until the next spring feast 583. Con-
of Dionysus before they were privileged to see any more plays, widespread
But meantime they were greatly interested in the decision of interest in

■' o J drama and

the jury of citizens awarding prizes for tragedy, for comedy, literature
and for the best chorus a bronze tripod to the citizen who had
equipped and trained it (Fig. 190). Moreover, the interest in
drama and the theater continued, for the next competition
soon demanded that probably two thousand men and boys
of Athens should put all their leisure time into learning their
parts written out for them on sheets of papyrus and into

Fig. 189. The Theater of Athens

This theater was the center of the growth and development of Greek
drama, which began as a part of the celebration of the spring feast of
Dionysus, god of the vine and the fruitfulness of the earth (§ 420).
The temple of the god stood here, just at the left. Long before any-
one knew of such a thing as a theater, the people gathered at this
place to watch the celebration of the god's spring feast, where they
formed a circle about the chorus, which narrated in song the stories of
the gods (§ 483). This circle (called the orchestra) was finally marked
out permanently, seats of wood for the spectators were erected in a
semicircle on one side, but the singing and action all took place in the
circle on the level of the ground. On the side opposite the public was
a booth, or tent (Greek, skene, " scene "), for the actors, and out of this
finally developed the stage. Here we see the circle, or orchestra,
with the stage cutting off the back part of the circle. The seats are of
stone and accommodated possibly seventeen thousand people. The
fine marble seats in the front row were reserved for the leading men of
Athens. The old wooden seats were still in use in the days when
i^schylus, Sophocles, and Euripides presented their dramas here
(§§ 578-582). From the seats the citizens had a grand view of the sea,
with the island of i^Lgina, their old-time rival (§ 543) ; and even the
heights of Argolis, 40 miles away, were visible ; for orchestra and seats
continued roofless, and a Greek theater was always open to the sky.
In Roman times a colonnaded porch across the back of the stage
was introduced, and such columns of Roman date may be seen in
Plate VII, p. 560. For the best-preserved early Greek theater, see
tailpiece, p. 393

374

Athens in the Age of Pericles 375

training and rehearsals for the various choruses. Thousands
of citizens too were reading the old plays that had already
been presented.

For now at length books too had come to take an important 584. Books
place in the life of Athens. Rows of baskets of cylindrical ^" ^^^ ^"^
shape held the books which filled the shelves in our Athenian
citizen's library. Homer and the works of the old classic poets
were now written on long rolls of papyrus, as much as a hun-
dred and fifty or sixty feet in length. To one of these rolls the
educated Greek sat down as the Egyptian had so long before
been accustomed to do (Fig. 191). For lack of good artificial
light, reading was necessarily done mostly by day, but studious
Greeks also ventured to try their eyes in reading by the dim
olive-oil lamp. Besides literary works, all sorts of books of in-
struction began to appear. The sculptors wrote of their art,
and Ictinus produced a book on his design 6i the Parthenon
(§ 576). There was a large group of books on medicine, bear-
ing the name of Hippocrates. Textbooks on mathematics and
rhetoric circulated, and the Athenian housekeeper could even
find a cookbook at the bookshop.

In our voyage up the Nile (§ 115), we found that far back 585 Con-
in the Egyptian Empire, a thousand years before the days of Athens and^"
Pericles, there was a group of gifted men who created at Thebes Thebes^
a grand and imperial city of noble architecture. But that group
of great Egyptians was not made up of citizens^ nor had the
multitudes of Thebes any share in government or in the
creation of the magnificent city. It was very different in the
Athens of Pericles. Here had grown up a whole community
of intelligent men, who were the product of the most active
interest in the life and government of the community, con-
stantly sharing in its tasks and problems, in daily contact
with the greatest works of art in literature, drama, painting,
architecture, and sculpture — such a wonderful community
indeed as the ancient world, Greek or oriental, had never
seen before.

37^ Ancient Times

Not only was it totally different from any that we have found
in the ancient Orient, but we see also how very different from
the Athens of the old days before the Persian Wars was this
imperial Athens of Pericles I — throbbing with new life and
astii with a thousand questions eagerly discussed at every
comer. Keenly awake to the demands of the greater State and
the sovereign people, the men of the new Athens were deeply
pondering also the duties and privileges of the individual, who
felt new and larger visions of himself conflicting with the exac-
tions of the State and the old faith. Troubled by serious doubts,
they were, nevertheless, clinging with wistful apprehension to
the old gods and the old truths. Under Pericles Athens was
becoming as he desired it should, the teacher of the Greek
world. It now remained to be seen whether the people^ in
sovereign control of the State, could guide her wisely and
maintain her new power. As we watch the citizens of Athens
endeavoring to furnish her with wise and successful guidance,
we shall find another and a sadly different side of the life of
this wonderful community.

QUESTIONS

Section 54. What can you say of the population of Attica as to
social classes? Discuss the rich and the poor. Were there any
beautiful houses in Europe in Pericles' time .? Describe an Athenian
house of this age ; its conveniences ; its equipment ; its decoration.
What were the streets of Athens like ? Describe Greek costume in
this age. What was now the position of women.? Describe the
usual school and its teacher. What subjects were taught ? What did
a boy do when he left school.? What oath of citizenship did he take.?
Tell about his military service; his athletic training. What were
the chief events in athletics ?

Section 55. What new private teachers now began to appear.?
What did these men teach ? Did a boy learn from them anything
which his father had not been taught .? What did the fathers think
about the teaching of the Sophists .? Was there any general knowl-
edge of science .? How was the time of day designated ? How was
time measured within the day.? within the year.? What were the

Athens in the Age of Pericles 377

difficulties? What discoveries were made in astronomy? in geog-
raphy? What progress was made in medicine? in history-writing?
How did government business train the citizens of Athens? Tell
about voluntary contributions by the citizens. What can you say
about official State feasts at Athens ?

Section 56. How did warmth of patriotic feeling affect music,
the drama, art, and architecture ? Discuss the painting of Marathon
in the Athenian market place. Do you see any connection between
art and patriotism in such a work ? Were there any fine government
office buildings in Athens under Pericles ? What was the material of
such buildings ? What were the beautiful public buildings of Greece
at this time ? How did the Athenian Acropolis look after the Persian
Wars? What did Pericles do about it? Who opposed him? Was
there a majority of Athenian citizens who wanted such great works
as Pericles planned? How then did he put his plan through? Who
assisted Pericles in carrying out the actual work on the Acropolis?
What buildings did they erect ? Describe the sculpture of Phidias.

What play did y^schylus write about the war with Persia? Do
you see any connection between literature and patriotism in such a
work? Describe the theater where such plays were presented at
Athens. Did a citizen pay for his own ticket? Describe a play in
such a theater. Who was Sophocles ? What did he think about the
gods and the Sophists? How many actors did he have?

What did Euripides think about the gods? To which of these
two men did the Athenians vote the most prizes ? What did an old-
fashioned citizen think about having his son read the plays of Eurip-
ides? Tell about the comedies played at Athens. How did the
Athenians take part in drama and music ? What did a book look like
in this age ? What books could a citizen find at the bookshop ?
Contrast Athens and Egyptian Thebes. In what ways was the
Athens of Pericles different from that of Solon?

Note. The sketch below shows us vase-paintings of Greek children at play.

CHAPTER XVI

THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN ATHENS AND SPARTA AND
THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE

Section 57. The Tyranny of Athens and the
Second Peloponnesian War

587. States of
the Athenian
Empire be-
come helfh
less subjects

While Athens under the guiding hand of Pericles had thus
made herself the chief center of refined and civilized life in the
Greek world, her political situation was in a number of ways
becoming a serious one both within and without her empire.
When the danger from Persia had long passed and some of
the island states of the Empire wished to withdraw, Athens

Note. The above headpiece shows us the lovely little Temple of Victory, still
standing on the Acropolis {B in Fig. 183). It was demolished by the Turks, who
built a battery out of its blocks. When the Turkish works were cleared away in
1835, the fragments of the temple were discovered and it was put together again.
The roof, however, is still lacking (but see D in restoration, p. 340). It was prob-
ably built, or at least begun, in the latter part of the leadership of Pericles. The
columns display the incoming Ionic form (Fig. 184) and are among the most
beautiful examples of this style, or, as it is commonly called, " order."

378

The Struggle between Athens a7id Sparta 379

would not permit them to do so. She sent out her war fleet,
conquered the rebellious islands, and forced them to pay
money tribute instead of contributing ships. Often many of
their citizens were driven out and their lands were divided
among the Athenian settlers. A. section of the Athenian fleet
was on constant duty to sail about in the ^gean and collect
the tribute money by force (see map II, p. 344). These funds
were used by Athens as she pleased, and the magnificent build-
ings of Pericles were paid for out of this tribute.

Moreover, the democracy of Athens was most undemocratic 588. Change

- , . , . , , . . - , in the poHcy

m Its treatment of these outsiders m the other cities or the of Athens
Empire. For, about the middle of the century the Athenians, ckfzenshfp
led by Pericles, abolished the former liberal policy of granting
citizenship to outsiders (§ 536) and passed a very strict law limit-
ing Athenian citizenship to those whose parents were themselves
citizens of Athens. This law kept the people of the Empire
really foreigners and deprived Athens of the large body of
loyal citizens which she might have gained from among the
subject cities.

At the same time Athens forced the people of the Empire 589. Tyranny
to come there to setfle their legal differences before her citizen- and discon-
juries. For this purpose the people of distant island states eUJ^j^J'^'^
were often obliged to make the expensive and inconvenient
journey to Athens. There was no feeling of unity within the
Empire, for the Council of representatives from the states of
the Empire, which once guided its affairs, no longer held any
meetings. Athens was in complete control and governed them
as she liked. They saw how much easier were the conditions
under which the members of the Spartan League lived, and
more than one of them sent secret messages to Sparta, with
the purpose of throwing off Athenian control and going over
to Sparta.

While such was the state of affairs within the Athenian 590. Hos-
Empire, conditions outside were even more serious. The out- dvaTs^of
ward splendor of Athens, her commercial prosperity, the visible -^^^^^^

38o

Ancient Times

591. Open

growth of her power, her not very conciliatory attitude toward
her rivals, and the example she offered of the seeming success
of triumphant democracy — all these things were causes of
jealousy to a backward and conservative military State like
Sparta, where most of the citizens were still unable to read,
iron money continued in use, and the town remained an open
settlement without walls or defenses (Fig. 178). Moreover,
this feeling of unfriendliness toward Athens was not confined
to Sparta but was quite general throughout Greece. 7'he mer-
chants of Corinth (Fig. 163) found Athenian competition a con-
tinuous vexation, and when Athenian possessions in the north
^gean revolted and received support from Corinth and Sparta,
the fact that hardly half of the thirty years' term of peace
(§ 545) had expired did not prevent the outbreak of war.
It seemed as if all European Greece not included in the

Pdopon-^^" Athenian Empire had united against Athens, for Sparta con-

nesian War
(431 B.C.)
and Pericles'
plan of cam-
paign

trolled the entire Peloponnesus except Argos, and north of
Attica, Boeotia led by Thebes, as well as its neighbors on the
west, were hostile to Athens. The support of Athens consisted
of the ^gean cities which made up her empire and a few out-
lying allies of littie power. She began the struggle with a large
war treasury and a fleet which made her undisputed mistress
of the sea. But she could not hope to cope with the land
forces of the enemy, which, some thirty thousand strong, had
planned to meet in the Isthmus in the spring of 431 B.C.
Accordingly, Pericles' plan for the war was to throw all the
resources of Athens into naval enterprises and make no effort
to defend Attica by land. When the Peloponnesian army
entered Attica the country communities were directed by
Pericles to leave their homes and take refuge in the open
markets and squares of Athens, the sanctuaries, and especially
between the Long Walls leading to the Piraeus. Here they
were safe behind the strong defenses of Athens and her port.
To offset the devastation of Attica by the Spartan army, all
that Athens could do was to organize destructive sea raids and

B. G. Teubner

Plate 1\

Corner of the Parthenon

Looking through the Doric colonnades as they are to-day, at the southeast
corner of the building, to the distant hills of Hymettus, On the left is the
base of the wall of the interior, destroyed by the explosion (p. 365, footnote).
At the top of this wall was the frieze of Phidias (Fig. 186 and § 577)

The Struggle between Athens and Sparta 38 1

inflict as much damage
Peloponnesus or blockade
of old (map II, p. 344).

The masses of people
crowded within the walls
of Athens under the
unsanitary conditions we
have already described
(§ 551), exposed the city
to disease; a plague,
brought in from the
Orient, raged with inter^
missions for several sea-
sons. It carried off
probably a third of the
population, and from
this unforeseen disaster
Athens never recovered.
Constantly under arms
for the defense of the
walls, deprived of any
opportunity to strike the
enemy, forced to sit still
and see their land rav-
aged, the citizens at last
broke out in discontent.

Even before the be-
ginning of the war there
had been signs that the
power of Pericles was
waning. He was a
thoroughly modem man,
associated openly with
the Sophists, and very
evidently held their views.

as possible along the coasts of the
and destroy Corinthian commerce as

2. The

Fig. 190. Monument commemorat-
ing THE Triumph of an Athenian

Citizen in Music
An entire street of Athens was filled
with such monuments (§ 583). We learn
the name of the citizen, Lysicrates, who
erected this beautiful monument, from
the inscription it still bears, which reads :
" Lysicrates . . . was choragus [leader of
the chorus] when the boy-chorus of the
tribe of Akamantis won the prize ; Theon
was a flute-player, Lysiades of Athens
trained the choir. Euaenetus was archon."
The archon's name dates the erection of
the monument for us in 335 to 334 B.C.
Beyond the monument we look west-
ward to the back of the Acropolis (see
plan, p. 352)

382

Ancient Times

We can understand what this meant to the people, if we
imagine one of our own political leaders of to-day declaring

himself an infidel.^ One of
Pericles' particular friends
among the Sophists had
been prosecuted by the
people for irreligious views
(§ 563). He was legally
condemned for his infidel-
ity and, in spite of all that
Pericles could do, was
obliged to flee from Athens.
At the same time a popu-
lar attack on the honesty
of Pericles' friend Phidias,
the great cculptor, resulted
in his being thrown into
prison, where he died. Fi
nally, Pericles himself lost
control, was tried for mis-
appropriation of funds,
and fined.

The absence of his
steadying hand and power-
ful leadership was at once
felt by the people, for
there was no one to take
his place, although a swarm
of small politicians were
contending for control of
the Assembly. Realizing

Fig. 191.

Greek Youth reading
FROM A Roll

It will be seen that the young man
holds the roll so that he rolls up a por-
tion of it with one hand as he unrolls
<04 Restora- ^"^^^^'^ portion with the other. He
tion, and death soon has a roll in each hand, while he
of Pericles holds smoothly stretched out between
(429 B.C.) ^he two rolls the exposed portion from
which he reads a column of writing
like that which we see photographed
from the oldest-preserved Greek book
(roll), in Fig. 223. Such a column
formed for him a page, but when it was
read, instead of turning a page as we
do, he rolled it away to the left side,
and brought into view a new column
from the other roll on the right side

their helplessness the peo-
ple soon turned to Pericles again and elected him strategus.

1 Those who remember Robert G. IngersoU will recall that he sacrificed a
political career because of his religious views.

The Struggle between Athens and Sparta 383

But the great days of his leadership were over. His two
sons died of the plague. Then he was himself stricken with
it and died soon after his return to power (429 B.C.). Great
statesman as he was, he had left Athens with a system of ^
government which did not provide for the continuation of such
leadership as he had furnished, and without such leadership
the Athenian Empire was doomed.

Men of the prosperous manufacturing class now came to 595. Lack of
the fore. They possessed neither the high station in life, the death'^of
ability as statesmen, nor the qualities of leadership to win the P'^^^^^s
confidence and respect of the people. Moreover, these new
leaders were not soldiers and could not command the fleet
or the army as Pericles had done. The most notable exception
was Alcibiades, a brilliant young man, a relative of Pericles
and brought up in his house. The two legal sons of Pericles
(there was another son by an illegal marriage, § 614) having
died, Alcibiades, if he had enjoyed the guidance of his foster
father a few years longer, might have become the savior of
Athens and of Greece. As it happened, however, this young
leader was more largely responsible than anyone else for the
destruction of the Athenian Empire and the downfall of Greece.

Lacking the steadying hand of a statesman whose well- 596. Unsta-
formed plans and continuous policy might furnish a firm and sh1p?f Se
guiding influence, the management of Athenian affairs fell into Assembly
confusion. Wavering and changeableness were rarely interrupted
by any display of stability, firmness, and wisdom ; the leaders
drifted from one policy to another, and usually from bad to
worse. It seemed impossible to regain stable leadership. The
youthful Aristophanes (§ 659) pictured the rudderless condition
of the ship of State in one clever comedy after another, in
which he ridiculed in irresistible satire the pretense to states-
manship of such " men of the people " as Cleon the tanner.

A typical example of the ill-considered actions of the As- 597. inci-
sembly was their treatment of the revolting citizens of Mitylene. MiJyiene
When the men of Mitylene were finally subdued, the Assembly

384 Ancient Times

on the Pnyx (Fig. 179) voted that they should all be put to
death, and a ship departed with these orders. It was with
great difficulty that a more moderate group in the Assembly
- secured a rehearing of the question and succeeded in inducing
the people to modify their barbarous action to the condemna-
tion and execution of the ringleaders only. A second ship then
overtook the first barely in time to save from death the entire
body of the citizens of Mitylene.

598. cieon In spite of such revolts Athenian naval supremacy continued ;

the tanner , , 1 i , r -, n

but as the war dragged on, the payment of army and fleet re-
duced Athenian funds to a very low state. Cleon the tanner
was a man of much energy and a good deal of financial ability.
He succeeded in having an income tax introduced, and later on
the tribute of the ^gean cities was raised. But having always
been a manufacturer, he lacked all military experience. For
years the operations on both sides were in most cases utterly
insignificant. This is best seen in Cleon's siege and capture of
four hundred Spartans on one of the islands on the west coast
of Greece — a disaster which made a great impression and, in
view of some other reverses, led the Spartans to sue for peace !
Later in an absurdly mismanaged expedition on the northern
coast of the ^gean, Cleon lost his army of fifteen hundred
men and his own life.

599. The first The attack of the allies on Athens did not succeed in break-
thewar^^and ^^ig up her empire and overthrowing her leadership of the
^'j^J?^?^^ ^gean cities. It was the devastation wrought by the plague
(421 B.C.) which had seriously affected her. Athens and the whole Greek

world were demoralized and weakened. The contest had in
it no longer the inspiration of a noble struggle such as the
Greeks had maintained against Persia. Unprecedented brutality,
like that at first adopted toward Mitylene, gave the struggle
a savagery and a lack of respect for the enemy which com-
pletely obscured all finer issues, if there were any such involved
in the war. With Cleon gone, Athenian leadership fell into the
hands of a wealthy and noble citizen named Nicias, a man of

The Struggle between Athens and Sparta 385

no ability. When ten years of indecisive warfare had passed,
Nicias arranged a peace to be kept for fifty years. Each con-
testant agreed to give up all new conquests and to retain only
old possessions or subject cities (see map II, p. 344).

Section 58. Third Peloponnesian War and
Destruction of the Athenian Empire

Meantime serious difficulties arose in carrying out the con- 600. Diffi-
ditions of the peace. One of the northern subject cities of maintaining
Athens which had gone over to Sparta refused to return to the new peace
Athenian allegiance. Athens took the questionable ground that
Sparta should force the unwilling city to obey the terms of
peace. It was at this juncture that Athens especially needed
such guidance as a statesman like Pericles could have fur-
nished. She was obliged to depend upon the feeble leadership
of Nicias and the energetic but unprincipled Alcibiades.

Nicias continued to urge a conciliatory attitude toward 601. Alci-
Sparta, but he failed of election as strategus. On the other onwaragam
hand, the gifted and reckless Alcibiades, seeing a great oppor-
tunity for a brilliant career, did all that he could to excite the
war party in Athens. He was elected strategus, and, in spite
of the fact that troubles at home had forced Sparta into a
treaty of alliance with Athens, Alcibiades was able to carry
the Assembly with him. He then involved Athens in an alliance
with Argos against Sparta. In this way Attica, exhausted with
plague and ten years of warfare, was enticed into a life-and-
death struggle which was to prove final.

Several years of ill-planned military and naval operations 602. Third

followed the fruitless peace of Nicias. The Spartans did not nesmTwar:

at once respond with hostilities and sent no army into Attica. Sicilian ex-
^ J pedition

Alcibiades at length persuaded the Athenians to plan a great
joint expedition of army and navy against Sicily, where the
mighty city of Syracuse, founded as a colony of Corinth, was
leading in the oppression of certain Western cities in alliance

386

Ancient Times

with Athens. The Athenians placed Alcibiades and Nicias
in command of the expedition.

Just as the fleet was about to sail, certain sacred images in
Athens were impiously mutilated, and the deed was attributed
to Alcibiades. In spite of his demand for an immediate trial,
the Athenians postponed the case until his return from Sicily.

Athenian Walla Finished
Athenian Walls Unfinished.
Syracusan Wall

Plan of the Siege of Syracuse

When the fleet reached Italy, however, the Athenian people,
with their usual inability to follow any consistent plan and also
desiring to take Alcibiades at a great disadvantage, suddenly
recalled him for trial. This procedure not only deprived the
expedition of its only able leader but also gave Alcibiades an
opportunity to desert to the Spartans, which he promptly did.
His advice to the Spartans now proved fatal to the Athenians.

The Struggle betzveen Athens and Sparta 387

The appearance of the huge Athenian fleet off their coast 604. incom
struck dismay into the hearts of the Syracusans, but Nicias NTdas^ °
entirely failed to see the importance of immediate attack before
the Syracusans could recover and make preparations for the
defense of their city. He wasted the early days of the cam-
paign in ill-planned maneuvers, only winning a barren victory
over the Syracusan land forces. When Nicias was finally in-
duced by the second general in command to begin the siege
of the city, courage had returned to the Syracusans, and their
defense was well organized.

The Athenians now built a siege wall behind Syracuse nearly 605. Athe-
across the point of land on which the city was situated, in order Sriuccefsfu
to cut it entirely off from the outside world. The spirit of the
Syracusans was much depressed, and surrender seemed not far
off. Just at this point Gylippus, a Spartan leader and his troops,
sent by the advice of Alcibiades, succeeded in passing the Athe-
nian lines and gained entrance to the city. The courage of the
Syracusans was at once restored. The Athenians were thrown
upon the defensive. Meantime the Syracusans had also organ-
ized a fleet. The Athenian fleet had entered the harbor, and
in these narrow quarters they were unable to maneuver or to
take advantage of their superior seamanship. After some
Athenian success at first, the fleet of Syracuse was victorious.

There was now no prospect of the capture of the city, and 606. Re-
Nicias would have withdrawn, but the leaders at home would Athenians
not allow it. In spite of renewed Spartan invasion, the blinded J^^pulsed
democratic leaders sent out another fleet and more land forces
to reinforce Nicias. No Greek state had ever mustered such
power and sent it far across the waters. All Greece watched
the spectacle with amazement. A night assault by the rein-
forced Athenians failed with large losses, and the position of
the whole expedition at once became a dangerous one.

With disaster staring them in the face there was nothing for
the Athenians to do but withdraw. But just at this point, an
eclipse of the moon occurred, and the superstitious Nicias

388

Ancient Times

insisted on waiting for another more favorable moon. This
month's delay was fatal to the Athenians. The Syracusans
blockaded the channel to the sea and completely shut up the
Athenian fleet within the harbor, so that an attempt to break
through and escape disastrously failed. The desperate Athenian

Fig. 192. Stone Quarries of Syracuse in which the Athe-
nians WERE Imprisoned

We look across the deep quarry and the Small Harbor to the ancient
island of Ortygia (see map, p. 386). It is now a cape, occupied by the
modern city of which we can see the buildings. The quarries are over-
grown with ivy and masked with beautiful green foliage. Here the seven
thousand Athenians captured by the Syracusans (§ 607) were imprisoned
without sufficient water and provisions, and here most of them died

army, abandoning sick and wounded, too late endeavored to
escape into the interior, but was overtaken and forced to sur-
render. The Syracusans treated the captured Athenians with
savage barbarity. After executing the commanding generals,
they took the prisoners, seven thousand in number, and sold
them into slavery or threw them into the stone quarries of the
city (Fig. 192), where most of them miserably perished. Thus

The Struggle between Athens and Sparta 389

the Athenian expedition was completely destroyed (413 B.C.).
This disaster, together with the earlier ravages of the plague,
brought Athens near the end of her resources.

Heretofore Sparta had stood more or less aloof, seemingly 608. Spartan
unwilling to break the peace of Nicias, and had not invaded Att[ca°" '"
Attica. But now seeing the unprotected condition of Athens,
after the dispatch of the Sicilian expedition, Sparta again in-
vaded Attica and, on the advice of Alcibiades, occupied the town
of Decelea,^ almost within sight of Athens. Here the Spartans
established a permanent fort held by a strong garrison, and thus
placed Athens in a state of perpetual siege. All agriculture
ceased, and the Athenians lived on imported grain. The people
now understood the folly of having sent away on a distant ex-
pedition the ships and the men that should have been kept at
home to repel the attacks of a powerful and still uncrippled foe.

After these disasters the Athenian Empire began to show 609. interna
signs of breaking up. The failure of the democracy in the the^Ath^enian
management of the war enabled the nobles to denounce popu- ^"^P*''^
lar riile as unsuccessful. The nobles regained power for a time ;
violence and bloodshed within were added to the dangerous
assaults of the enemy from without. The finances were in a
desperate condition. The tribute, already raised to the breaking
point, was abolished and a customs duty of five per cent was
levied on all goods exported or imported. The plan was a suc-
cess and brought in a larger income than the tribute. But the
measure did not unite nor quiet the discontented communities
of which the Empire was made up. One after another they fell-
away. Spartan warships sailed about in the ^Egean, aiding the
rebels, who had of course dared to revolt only on promise of
such assistance from Sparta.

To add to the Athenian distress, the powerful Persian satrap 610. Persia
in western Asia Minor was supporting the Spartan fleet. ponV^slans^^
with money. Indeed, both Athens and Sparta had long been y?'"^^

1 On this account the war with Sparta which now followed, lasting nine years
(from 413 to 404 B.C.), is often called the " Decelean War " (see map, p. 352).

390

Ancient Times

6il. Alcibia-
des recovers
command of
the Athe-
nian fleet
(411 B.C.)

612. Resto-
ration of
Alcibiades
(407 B.C.)

613. Fall and
death of
Alcibiades

negotiating with Persia for aid, and Sparta had recognized Per-
sian rule over the Greek cities of Asia. The Greek islands
and the cities of Asia Minor which had once united in the
Delian League with Athens to throw off Persian rule were now
combining with Sparta and Persia against Athens. Thus the
former union of the Greeks in a heroic struggle against the
Asiatic enemy had given way to a disgraceful scramble for
Persian support and favor.

Meantime Alcibiades, under the protection of the Persian
satrap, had himself encouraged the revolters against Athens,
hoping that her distress would finally oblige her to recall him
and seek his aid. He was not disappointed. The small fleet
which the Athenians were still able to put into the fight called
upon Alcibiades for help, and finally put itself under his com-
mand, without any authorization from Athens. In several con-
flicts, chiefly through the skill of Alcibiades, the Peloponnesian
fleet was finally completely destroyed, and Athens regained the
command of the sea.

Sparta now made offers of peace, but Alcibiades skillfully
used the war sentiment in the fleet against their acceptance,
and the democratic leaders in power at Athens also refused to
make peace. Alcibiades was then (407 B.C.) elected strategus
and legally gained command of the fleet which he had already
been leading for four years. At the head of a triumphant pro-
cession he entered Athens again for the first time since he had
left it for Sicily eight years before. He was solemnly purified
from the religious curse which rested upon him ; and his for-
tune, which had been confiscated, was returned to him.

It now needed only the abilities of such a leader as Alcibi-
ades to accomplish the union of the distracted Greek states,
and the foundation of a great Greek nation. At this supreme
moment, however, Alcibiades lacked the courage to seize the
government, and the opportunity never returned again. When
he put to sea again a slight defeat, inflicted on a part of his
fleet when he was not present, cost him the favor of the fickle

The Struggle between Athens and Sparta 391

Athenians. When they failed to reelect him strategus he retired
to a castle which he had kept in readiness on the Hellespont.
He never saw his native land again and died in exile, the victim
of a Persian dagger.

The Athenians had now lost their ablest leader again, but 614. Athe-
they continued the war on the sea as best they could. They orArgTnussej
won another important victory over a new Peloponnesian fleet of^^he^'^^^J^jj^.
on the coast of Asia Minor by the little islands of Arginusae. manders

(406 B.C.)

As the battle ended a storm arose which prevented the com-
manders from saving the Athenian survivors clinging to the
wreckage. For this accident the Athenian commanders were
accused of criminal neglect before the Assembly and con-
demned to death. In spite of all that could be done, six of the
eight naval commanders were executed, including the young
Pericles, a son of the great statesman. The other two com-
manders had been wise enough to flee from such justice as
they might expect at the hands of the Athenian democracy.

Athens now suffered worse than ever before for lack of 615. Capture
competent commanders. The fleet numbering about one hun- nian fleet at
dred and eighty triremes was placed in command of a group *J5 '^^"'^ °^.
of officers, each of whom was to lead for a day at a time. The (405 b.c)
democratic leaders who had made this absurd arrangement
watched the fleet sail out to continue a war which they them-
selves were prolonging by again refusing Spartan proffers of
peace. For several days in succession the Athenians sailed out
from their station near the river called^ ^gospotami on the
Hellespont, and offered battle to the Peloponnesian fleet lying
in a neighboring harbor. But the Peloponnesians refused
batde. On their return from these maneuvers each day, the
Athenians left their ships along the beach and themselves went
ashore. Alcibiades from his neighboring castle, where he still
was, came down and pointed out to the Athenian commanders
the great danger they ran in leaving the fleet in this condition
so near the enemy. His advice received no attention. The
able Spartan, Lysander, the commander of the Peloponnesian

392

Ancient Times

6i6. Sur-
render of
Athens and
fall of the
Athenian
Empire
(404 B.C.)

fleet, seeing this daily procedure, waited until the Athenians had
gone ashore and left their ships as usual. Then, sailing over,
he surprised and captured practically the whole Athenian fleet.
At last, twenty-seven years after Pericles had provoked the
war with Sparta, the resources of Athens were exhausted. Not
a man slept on the night when the terrible news of final ruin
reached Athens. It was soon confirmed by the appearance of
Lysander's fleet blockading the Piraeus. The grain ships from
the Black Sea could no longer reach the port of Athens. The
Spartan king pitched his camp in the grove of the Academy
(§ 558) and called on the city to surrender. For some months
the stubborn democratic leaders refused to accept terms of peace
which meant the complete destruction of Athenian power. But
the pinch of hunger finally convinced the Assembly, and the
city surrendered. The Long Walls and the fortifications of the
Piraeus were torn down, the remnant of the fleet was handed
over to Sparta, all foreign possessions were given up, and
Athens was forced to enter the Spartan League. These hard
conditions saved the city from the complete destruction de-
manded by Corinth. Thus the century which had begun so
gloriously for Athens with the repulse of Persia, the century
which under the leadership of such men as Themistocles and
Pericles had seen her rise to supremacy in all that was best
and noblest in Greek life, closed with the annihilation of the
Athenian Empire (404 B.C.).

QUESTIONS

Section 57. How did Athens treat the subject states of her
Empire? What was now her policy regarding citizenship.? regard-
ing lawsuits in the subject states.? How did these states now feel
toward Athens? How did the states outside the Athenian Empire
feel? What was the result? Who were the enemies of Athens in
this war? What were her resources?

What was Pericles' plan of campaign ? What disaster overtook
Athens? How did this affect the fortunes of Pericles? By what

The Struggle between Athens and Sparta , 393

associations had he displeased the people? What was the result?
What young leader now came forward? What kind of leadership
did the Assembly now furnish? Give an example. W^hat business
man now tried to lead the nation? How did he succeed? Were
the military operations of the war on a large scale? What was the
result of ten years' war? Who arranged the peace ? When?

Section 58. Who was chiefly responsible for the reopening of
the war ? What great expedition did the Athenians plan ? Who were
the commanders ? What prevented Alcibiades from going ? Tell the
story of the expedition and its end. What did Sparta now do?
What was now the internal condition of the Athenian Empire?
What part did Persia play in the war? What can you state of the
restoration of Alcibiades to office? What was the result? How did
the Athenians treat their naval commanders? What was the re-
sult? What was the situation of Athens after the loss of her fleet?
What conditions did Sparta make ? Contrast the beginning and the
end of the fifth century in Athenian history.

Note. The tailpiece below shows us the theater of Epidaurus, which is un-
usually instructive because it is the best preserved of the Greek theaters.
Although it was built late in the fourth century B.C., we see that the orchestra
circle is still complete and has not been cut into by later stage arrangements
behind it as at Athens (Fig. i8g).

CHAPTER XVII

THE FINAL CONFLICTS AMONG THE GREEK STATES

Section 59. Spartan Leadership and the Decline
OF Democracy

617. Unfit- The long struggle of Athens for the political leadership of

foHeaderehip ^he Greek world had ignominiously failed. It now remained

of the Greeks

to be seen whether her victorious rival, Sparta, was any better
suited to undertake such leadership. No nation which devotes
itself exclusively to the development of military power, as
Sparta had done, is fitted to control successfully the affairs of
its neighbors. Military garrisons commanded by Spartan offi-
cers were now placed in many of the Greek cities, and Spartan

Note. The above headpiece shows us the lovely Porch of the Maidens built to
adorn the temple on the Acropolis known as the Erechtheum (F'm Fig. 183). This
was a very ancient sanctuary of Athena, supposed to have gained its name because
it was originally a shrine in the castle of the prehistoric king Erechtheus on the
Acropolis, It was believed to stand on the spot where Athena overcame Poseidon
in her battle with him for the possession of Attica, and here was the mark of the
Sea-god's trident which he struck into the earth. Here also grew the original olive
tree which Athena summoned from the earth as a gift to the Athenians (§ 654).
The building was erected during the last Peloponnesian war, in spite of the finan-
cial distress of Athens at that time. It is one of the most beautiful architectural
works left us by the Greeks.

394

The Final Conflicts among the Greek States 395

control was maintained in a much more offensive form than
was the old tyranny of Athens.

By such violent means Sparta was able to repress the democ- 618. Stmggle
racies which had everywhere been hostile to her. In each city ^d d?^'^ ^
the Spartans established and supported by military force the "locracy
rule of a small group of men from the noble or upper class.
Such rule of a small group was called oligarchy^ a Greek
term meaning " rule of a few." The oligarchs were guilty of
the worst excesses, murdering and banishing their political
opponents and confiscating their fortunes. When the people
regained power, they retaliated in the same way and drove the
oligarchs from the city. As this kind of conflict went on, both
parties banished so many that a large number of the leading
Athenian citizens constantly lived in exile. From their foreign
homes they plotted against their banishers and formed a
constant danger from abroad.

In spite of the failure of oligarchy, thoughtful men every-
where regarded popular rule also as an open failure. The splen-
did achievements of citizenship under Pericles (Chapter XV) of democracy
must not blind us to the weaknesses of Athenian democracy.
Some of these we have already seen in following the course
of the Peloponnesian Wars; but the same weaknesses were
evident in the people's control of the internal affairs of Athens.
Let us examine some of the leading matters in which popular
control had failed and continued to fail

Nowhere were the mistakes of democracy more evident than
in the Athenian law courts. The payment of the large citizen-
juries (§ 538) often exhausted the treasury. When there was ^^^^.^0^6^
no money in the treasury with which to pay the juries, the jury-
men, who preferred such service to hard work, found it very
easy to fill the treasury again by fining any accused citizen
brought before them, whether he was guilty or innocent. More
than one lawyer of the time urged the court to confiscate the
fortune of an accused citizen, in order that the jurymen to whom
the lawyer was talking might thus receive their pay. It became

396

Ancient Times

621. Evils of
one-sided
class rule

622. Unwise
financial pol-
icy of the
democracy

623. Expen-
sive means of
collecting
taxes

a profitable trade to bring accusations and suits against wealthy
men on all sorts of trumped-up charges. A man thus threat-
ened usually preferred to buy off his accusers, in order to avoid
going before five hundred poor and ignorant jurors.

In the days of Solon we remember that the rule of the upper
classes over the lower was so oppressive that it almost resulted
in the destruction of the State (§ 473). In the course of less
than two hundred years the lower classes had gained complete
control, and their rule, as we have just seen (§ 620), became so
corruptly oppressive toward the upper classes that the final situ-
ation was again one-sided class rule, as bad as any that Athens
had ever seen. To Athenian misfortunes in foreign wars were
thus added the constant violence of weakening inner struggles
between classes.

Another weakness of popular rule was its unwise financial
policy, which continually exhausted the treasury of Athens. Her
empty treasury was due to a number of causes, chiefly three.
First, the payment of large numbers of citizens for services to
the State, especially the thousands of citizen-jurors ; second, the
payment to all citizens of " show-money " (§ 579), a heavy drain
on the treasury ; and third, the long-continued expenses and
losses of war (§ 539).

To these we might add .the expensive means of collecting
taxes employed by both parties. Unlike the great oriental gov-
ernments we have studied (Fig. 40), no Greek state possessed
any oflficials to undertake the task of collecting taxes. It there-
fore sold its tax claims to the highest bidder, who then had the
right to collect the taxes. In order to secure the large sums
necessary for making such bids, a number of men of money
would form themselves into a company. These companies
by secretly combining gained a monopoly in the business of tax
collecting. Their bid was always far less than the amount of
the tax claims to be collected. Thus the people paid far more
taxes than the State received from the collectors, into whose
pockets the difference weilt Consequently, the rate of taxation

The Final Co7tflicts among the Gy-eek States 397

at Athens was now high, being at least from one to two per
cent of a man's fortune and sometimes much higher.

The Athenians had early begun to use the treasure which 624. Exhaus-
had accumulated in the temple of Athena. The obligation to temple treas-
pay back this borrowed treasure was engraved upon a stone "^^^J ^oTthe
tablet set up on the Acropolis. To this day the surviving frag- Greek states
ments of this broken stone bear witness to the unpaid debt to
Athena and the bankruptcy of Athens. After the long struggle
between Athens and Sparta was over, all the Greek states
were practically bankrupt. An admiral or a general of this time
often found himself facing the enemy without the money to pay
his forces or to feed them. At the*same time, if he failed in
his campaign he would be punished for his failure by the democ-
racy at home. There were times when the Athenian courts
ceased to hold any sessions, for lack of funds to pay the citizen-
juries, and a man with an important lawsuit on his hands could
not g€i it tried.

Under these circumstances the Mediterranean states for the 625. Begin-
first time began to study the methods and theory of raising financial
money for government expenses. A beginning was thus made in theory and
the science of national finances and political economy. Neverthe- economy
less, the method of collection of the taxes continued to be that
of " farming " out the undertaking to the highest bidder. In
this matter the Orient still remained far in advance of the north-
em Mediterranean states (§ 74). From now on the finances of
a nation became more and more a matter of special training,
and it became more difficult for the average citizen without
experience to manage the financial offices of the government.

Notwithstanding the great losses in property and in men 626. Begin-
during the long Peloponnesian Wars, Athens at length began dSrUneof^
to recover herself. The farms of Attica had been laid waste so farming, and

appearance

often by the Spartan armies that agriculture never wholly re- of large land-
covered its former prosperity. There was a tendency among
farmers to sell their land and to undertake some form of manu-
facturing in the city. This was a natural thing to do, for the

398

Ancient Times

industries of Athens offered attractive opportunities to make a
fortune. At the same time, men who had already gained wealth
in manufactures bought one farm after another. This was a
process which would finally concentrate the lands of Attica in
the hands of a few large city landlords who were not farmers,
but worked their great estates, each made up of many farms,
with slaves under superintendents. The landowning farmers
who worked their own lands and lived on them tended to
disappear. In their place the great estates common in neigh-
boring Asia Minor under the Persians (§ 269) were also
appearing among the Greeks.

Athens was still the leading business center and the greatest
city in the Mediterranean world. While manufacturing business
was not often conducted by companies, groups of wealthy men,
as we have seen, united to furnish the large sums necessary to
bid for the contract to collect the taxes. Such combinations
formed one of the evils of Athenian business life, as they have
sometimes done in our own time. Other men combined their
capital to form the first banks. The Greeks no longer left their
accumulated money in a temple treasury, for safe-keeping, but
gave it to such a bank that it might be loaned out, used in
business, and earn interest. Athens thus became the financial
center of the ancient world, as New York and London are to-
day, and her bankers became the proverbially wealthy men of
the time. The most successful among them was Pasion, a
former slave, who had been able to purchase his liberty because
of his great business ability.

As the banking system resulted in keeping more money in
circulation the old increase in prices (§ 537) went on, and the
expenses for government were consequently higher; but the
democracy continued to pay itself vast sums for jury service
and show-money. There was a freer use of money in private
life among the well-to-do classes. The houses of such people
began to display rooms with painted wall decorations and
adorned with rugs and hangings. An orator of the time

The Final Conflicts among the Greek States 399

condemns such luxurious houses, which he says were unknown
in the days of Miltiades and the Persian War, just as some
criticize our own modern fine houses and contrast them with
the simplicity of George Washington and Revolutionary days.

Men were now becoming more and more interested in their 629. Rise of
own careers, and they were no longer so devoted to the State sionafsoWier
as formerly. This was especially true in the matter of military ^^ a result of
service. Except in Sparta, a Greek had heretofore left his occu- nesian Wars
pation for a brief space to bear arms for a single short cam-
paign, and then returned to his occupation. Such men made
up a citizen militia, no more devoted* to arms than our own
modern militia. But the long Peloponnesian Wars had kept
large numbers of Greeks so long under arms that many of
them permanently adopted military life and became professional
soldiers, serving for pay wherever they could find opportunity.
Such soldiers serving a foreign state for pay are called " mer-
cenaries." There were few unoccupied lands to which a young
Greek could migrate as in the colonizing age ; and Persia blocked
all such enterprises in the East. The Greek youths who could
find no opportunities at home were therefore enlisting as soldiers
in Egypt, in Asia Minor, and in Persia, and the best young blood
of Greece was being spent to strengthen foreign states instead
of building up the power of the Greeks.

During the Peloponnesian Wars military leadership had also 6?o. Rise of
become a profession. It was no longer possible for a citizen to m^°ftary°"^^
leave private life and casually assume command of an army or headers ;

■' Xenophon

a fleet. Athens produced a whole group of professional military and the Ten
leaders whose romantic exploits made them famous throughout °"^"
the ancient world. The most talented among these was the
Athenian, Xenophon. About 400 B.C. he took service in Asia
Minor with Cyrus, a young Persian prince, who was planning
to overthrow his brother, the Persian king. With ten thousand
Greek mercenaries Cyrus marched entirely across Asia Minor
to the Euphrates, and down the river almost to Babylon. Here
the Greeks defeated the army of the Persian king ; but Cyrus

400

Ancient Times

was killed, and the Greeks were therefore obliged to retreat.
Xenophon led them up the Tigris past the ruins of Nineveh
(Fig. 203), and after months of fighting in dangerous moun-
tain passes, suffering from cold and hunger, the survivors
struggled on until they reached the Black Sea and finally gained
Byzantium in safety.

Of this extraordinary raid into the Persian Empire Xenophon
has left a modest account called the "Anabasis" (" up-going"),
one of the great books which have descended to us from ancient
times. He explains the military operations involved, and the
book thus became one of the treatises on military science which
now began to appear. Such leaders were discussing the theory
of operations in the field, methods of strategy, and the best
kinds of weapons. Even Euripides, in his tragedy of Hercules^
pictured the comparative effectiveness of bow and spear.
Xenophon tells of an officer of Cyrus who divided his men into
two parties and armed one party with clods and the other with
clubs. After the two parties had fought it out, all agreed that
the club in the hand at close quarters was more effective than
missiles (that is, the clods) hurled from a distance. This was
to demonstrate the effectiveness of the spear at close quarters
over the arrows of distant archers.

We recall that in Pericles' time the Spartans made no
attempt to attack the walls of Athens, because the Greeks at
that time knew nothing about methods of attacking fortifica-
tions. The Phoenician Carthaginians, however, had carried the
Assyrian siege devices (p. 140) to the west, where the west-
em Greeks had now learned to use them in Sicily. From Sicily
the use of battering-rams, movable towers, and the like was car-
ried to Greece itself, and against attack with such equipment
Athens would no longer have been safe. The Mediterranean,
which had so long ago received the arts of peace from the
Orient, was now also learning to use war machinery from the
same source. At the same time larger warships were con-
structed, some having as many as five banks of oars ; and the

The Final Co7iflicts atnong the Greek States 40 1

old triremes with three banks could no longer stand against such
powerful ships. All such equipment made war more expensive
than before.

The remarkable feat of Xenophon's Ten Thousand (§ 630) 633. War
finally stirred Spartan ambition to undertake conquest in Persian sparta and
territory in Asia Minor. The Spartans, therefore, hired the sur- Persia ; and

^ JT J 7 ^j^g Corin-

viving two thirds of the Ten Thousand, but the rule of Sparta thianWar
had caused such dissatisfaction that her victories in Asia Minor
were offset by revolts in Greece. In one of these Lysander
was killed. The outcome of these rebellions was a league of
Athens and Thebes against Sparta. Even Corinth, the old-time
enemy of Athens, joined this league, and Argos also came in.
Behind this combination was Persia, whose agents had brought
it about in order to weaken Sparta. It was one of the ironies
of the whole deplorable situation that a fleet of Athens made
common cause with the Persians and helped to fasten Persian
despotism on the Greek cities of Asia. The Greeks had learned
nothing by their long and unhappy experience of fruitless fight-
ing, and thus began an eight years' struggle, called the Corinthian
War. The Athenians had been able to rebuild a fleet, with which
they now destroyed the fleet of Sparta. They were then in a
position to erect the Long Walls again.

At length the Persians began to fear lest Athens should again 634. King's
be strong enough to endanger Persian control in Asia Minor. (3^7 b.c.)
The Spartans, therefore, found it easy to arrange a peace with
Persia. The Greek states fighting Sparta were equally willing
to come to terms, and when peace was at last established in
Greece, it was under the humiliating terms of a treaty accepted
by Hellas at the hands of the Persian king. It is known as the
King's Peace (387 B.C.). It did not end the leadership of Sparta
over the Greek states, and the Greek cities of Asia Minor were
shamefully abandoned to Persia. The period following the
King's Peace brought only added discontent with Sparta's illegal
and tyrannical control, and no satisfactory solution of the prob-
lem of the relations of the Greek states among themselves.

402

Ancient Times

Section 6o. The Fall of Sparta and the
Leadership of Thebes

For twenty-five years since the last Peloponnesian war, the
Spartans had been endeavoring to maintain control of the
Greek world. Men like Lysander had been unable to trans-
form the rigid Spartan system into a government which should
sympathetically include and direct the activities of the whole
Greek world. The Spartans were therefore more hated than
Athens had ever been. A group of fearless and patriotic
citizens at Thebes succeeded in slaying the oligarchs, the
Spartan garrison surrendered and a democracy was set up,
which gained the leadership of all Boeotia. At the same time
Athens, which on the whole had been greatly strengthened by
the terms of the King's Peace, was able to begin the formation
of a second naval alliance like the original league from which
the Athenian Empire had sprung. The combination included
Thebes and so many of the other Greek cities that Sparta was
greatly disturbed. The Spartans met disaster on land, and
when this was followed by the defeat of their fleet by Athens,
they were ready for peace.

To arrange this peace all the Greek states met at Sparta,
and such meetings gave them experience in the united manage-
ment of their common affairs for the welfare of all Hellas.
Spartan leadership might have held the Greek states together,
and by giving them all a voice in the control of Hellas, Sparta
might still have finally united the Greeks into a great nation.
But this was not to be. When the conditions of peace were
all agreed upon, the Spartans refused to allow Thebes to speak
for the whole of Boeotia. The Thebans refused to enter the
compact on any other terms, and the peace was concluded with-
out them. This left Sparta and Thebes still in a state of war.

All Greece now expected to see the Thebans crushed by the
heavy Spartan phalanx, which had so long proved irresistible.
The Spartan plan of battle hitherto followed by all commanders

The Final Conflicts among the Greek States 403

consisted in making the phalanx of the right wing very heavy
and massive, by arraying it many warriors deep. The custom-
ary depth was eight men. The onset of a well-drilled phalanx
produced a pressure so terrible that the opposing lines gave
way and the unbroken phalanx pushed through. The effect
was that of a heavy mass play in American football, only we
must picture the phalanx as carrying out the operation on a
large scale. Having broken through at the fi'-st onset, the

Theban Right

Theban Center

ThebanLeft "^

^ SpartanLeft Spartan Center

SpartanBight ^

Plan of the Battle of Leuctra (371 b.c.)

das, the
Theban

victorious phalanx could then cut down singly the scattered
soldiers who had given way before them.

The Spartans had, as it were, but one '' play " in their list ; 638. New
but they were accustomed to see it automatically successful. Epaminon-
The Theban commander, a gifted and patriotic citizen named
Epaminondas, consequently knew in advance the only " play "
which the Spartans had ever used. He therefore devised an
altogether novel arrangement of his troops, such that it would
meet and more than offset the fearful pressure of the heavy
Spartan right. He drew up his line so that it was not parallel
with that of the Spartans, his right wing being much further
from the Spartan line than his left. At the same time he
massed his troops on his left wing, which he made fifty shields

404

Ancient Times

deep. This great mass was to meet the shock of the heavy
Spartan right wing (see plan, p. 403).

The battle took place at Leuctra, in southern Boeotia (see
map, p. 352). As the lines moved into action the battle did not
begin along the whole front at once ; but the massive Theban
left wing, being furthest advanced, met the Spartan line first and
was at first engaged alone. Its onset proved so heavy that the
Spartan right opposing it was soon crushed, and the rest of"
the Spartan line also gave way as the Theban center and right
came into action. Over half of the Spartans engaged were
slain and with them their king. The long-invincible Spartan
army was at last defeated, and the charm of Spartan prestige
was finally broken. After more than thirty years of leadership
(since 404 b.c.) Spartan power was ended (371 B.C.)

The two rival leaders of the Greeks, Athens and Sparta, had
now both failed in the effort to weld the Greek states together
as a nation. A third Greek state was now victorious on land,
and it remained to be seen whether Thebes could accomplish
what xA.thens and Sparta had failed in doing. Under Epami-
nondas' leadership Thebes likewise created a navy, and having
greatly weakened Athens at sea, Thebes gained the leadership
of Greece. But it was a supremacy based upon the genius of
a single man, and when Epaminondas fell in a final battle with
Sparta at Mantinea (362 B.C.), the power of Thebes by land
and sea collapsed.

Thus the only powerful Greek states, which might have
developed a federation of the Hellenic world, having crushed
each other, Hellas was ready to fall helplessly before a con-
queror from the outside. The Greek world, whose civilization
was everywhere supreme, was politically prostrate and helpless.

It was less than two generations since the death of Pericles,
and there were still old men living who had seen him in their
childhood days. We have been following the political fortunes
of Athens, Sparta, and Thebes during these two generations,
but our narrative has been very far from telling the whole

The Final Conflicts among the Greek States 405

story. For in spite of their political decline during the two
generations since Pericles, the Greeks, and especially the Athe-
nians, had been achieving things in their higher life, in art,
architecture, literature, and thought, which made this period per-
haps the greatest in-the history of man. To these achievements
since the death of Pericles we must now turn back.

QUESTIONS ,

Section 59. Why was Sparta unfitted to control the Greek
states ? What was her method of control 1 What is an oligarchy 1
How did it succeed 1 Had democracy succeeded any better .? Describe
the abuses practiced by the citizen-juries. Was class rule by the poor
any better than class rule by the rich ? What practices kept the
Athenian treasury empty ? What was the Athenian method of collect-
ing taxes.? Why was it unprofitable for the State? Describe the
effects of lack of money on the work of government. What did the
Greeks do in order to understand the national finances 1

What was happening to small farm owners ? Discuss business and
finance at this time. How had the long Peloponnesian Wars affected
the citizen soldiers of Greece t How was military leadership develop-
ing,? Tell the story of Xenophon and the Ten Thousand. How has
this story come down to us .? What science was now arising .? Where
did the Greeks learn the use of siege machinery ? What did the raid
of the Ten Thousand lead Sparta to do.? Sketch the Corinthian
War. What was the result 1

Section 60. What combination was formed to overthrow the
leadership ,of Sparta ? What did the Thebans do ? What happened
at the peace conference .? In the resulting war between Sparta and
Thebes what result was to be anticipated .? Describe Spartan military
tactics. How did Epaminondas plan to meet the Spartan tactics?
Where and when did the armies meet ? What was the result ? How
did Thebes succeed in leading the Greek states ? In what condition
politically was the whole Greek world ?

CHAPTER XVIII

THE HIGHER LIFE OF THE GREEKS FROM THE DEATH OF
PERICLES TO THE FALL OF THE GREEK STATES

Section 6i. Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting

643. Decline

of St

The long wars and the demands of the democracy (§ 622)
port of artand had swallowed up the wealth of Athens ; the great and splendid
architecture y^orks of the Age of Pericles were therefore no longer possible.
At the same time Athens was obliged to rebuild her fortifications,
erect war arsenals, and build sheds for her battleships. The old
temporary wooden seats of the theater (§ 579) were replaced
by a permanent structure of stone (Fig. 189). Here 'and there
other Greek cities also were building durable stone theaters

Note. The above headpiece is a restoration by Adler of the famous tomb of
King Mausolus of Caria, called after him the Mausoleum (§ 646). We now call
any splendid tomb a mausoleum, thus preserving the old Hittite name of this
king. It was when first built (in the middle of the fourth century B.C.) the most
magnificent tomb on the north side of the Mediterranean, and it was because of
its widespread fame that its name was preserved. Upon a high rectangular base
a fine Ionic colonnade supported a step pyramid, upon which, crowning the
whole monument, rose a splendid four-horse chariot bearing the king and queen.
The work was designed and built by the architect and sculptor Pythius, and
adorned with sculpture by Scopas and other Athenian sculptors whom the queen
(§ 646) called to Caria for the purpose.

406

The Higher Life of the Greeks

407

like that at Athens. Permanent stadiums for races were like-
wise erected by some communities (Fig. 212, 0. The mainte-
nance of art and architecture in this age was, however, largely
in the hands of individual artists, not
supported by the State but produc-
ing works of art for private buyers.

Nevertheless, the Erechtheum {F
in Fig. 183), one of the most beautiful
buildings ever erected, a temple which
had been begun before Pericles' death,
was continued and, for the most part,
completed during the unhappy days
of the last Peloponnesian war. It
was built in the Ionic style (p. 340),
adorned with colonnades of wonder-
ful refinement and beauty, and at one
comer, over the grave of the legend-
ary king Cecrops, the architects raised
an exquisite porch, with its roof sup-
ported by lovely marble figures of
Athenian maidens, watching over
the burial place of the ancient king
(headpiece, p. 394).

Egyptian architects, as we remem-
ber, had long before crowned their
columns with a capital representing
growing flowers or palm-tree tops
(Fig. 56). The Greek architects
now profited by this hint (see head-
piece and note, p. 453). Perceiving
the great beauty of their own
acanthus plant, they now designed a
capital adorned with a double row
of acanthus leaves (Fig. 193). This
new capital was richer and more

Fig. 193. A Corin-
thian Capital

The shaft of this column
has been cut out in the draw-
ing between the base and
the capital to save space.
Like the capitals of Egypt
(§ 92), this one represents
a plant, the leaves of the
acanthus, alternating in two
rows around the capital and
crowned by volutes rising
to the four corners of a
flat block upon which the
supported stone above
rests. The effect of this
capital is peculiarly rich
and ornate (§ 645)

4o8

Ancient Times

646. The
Mausoleum
in Asia Minor

647. Con-
trast between
sculpture of
the Periclean
Age and the
later work

648. The
sculpture of
Praxiteles
and Scopas

sumptuous than the simpler Doric and Ionic forms (p. 340).
Although our earliest example of such columns still survives
at Athens (Fig. 190), they are now called Corinthian columns.

While Athens no longer possessed the means to erect great
state temples, other Greek states were not all so financially ex-
hausted. In Asia Minor the widowed queen of the wealthy king
of the Carians, Mausolus, so revered the memory of her royal
husband that she devoted vast riches to the erection of a mag-
nificent marble tomb for him, so splendid that it became one
of the most famous monuments of the ancient world (head-
piece, p. 406). While imposing as a monument of architecture,
the Mausoleum (so named after Mausolus ; see note, p. 406)
was most impressive because of the rich and remarkable sculp-
ture with which it was adorned. To do this work the widowed
queen called in the greatest sculptors of the Greeks.

Sculpture had made great progress since the days of Pericles.
Phidias and his pupils depicted the gods, whom they wrought
in marble, as lofty, majestic, unapproachable beings, lifted high
above human weaknesses and human feeling. We remember
that even the human figures of Phidias were not the everyday
men and women, youths and maidens whom we might have
met on the streets of Athens (§ 577). When Phidias and his
pupils had passed away, the sculptors who followed them began
to put more of the feeling and the experience of daily human
life into their work and thus brought their subjects nearer to
us. Among them we must give a high place, perhaps the high-
est place, to the great Athenian sculptor Praxiteles.

His native city being without the money for great monu-
mental works, Praxiteles wrought individual figures of life size,
and most of these for foreign states. Unlike the majestic and
exalted figures of Phidias, the gods of Praxiteles seem near to
us. They at once appeal to us as being human like ourselves,
interested in a life like ours, and doing things which we would
like to do ourselves. As they stand at ease in attitudes of repose,
the grace and balance of the flowing lines give them a splendor

The Higher Life of the Greeks 409

of beauty unattained by any earlier sculpture of the Greeks
(Figs. 187, 194, and 195). In great contrast with the work
of Praxiteles was that of Scopas, who did much of the sculpture
of the Mausoleum. He loved to fashion figures not in tranquil
moods, but in violent action, in moments of passionate excite-
ment, like that of warriors in battle (Fig. 196). ^\iQ faces sculp-
tured by Praxiteles and Scopas were no longer expressionless,
as in earlier sculpture (Figs. 168 and 169); but the artists began
to. put into them some of their own inner feeling. The artist's
own individual life thus began to find expression in his work.
In many ways the sculpture of this age was much influenced
by the work of the painters, who really led the way.

The introduction of portable paintings on wooden tablets 649. Rise of
made it more easy for the painters to follow their own individ- ^ood"^^ °"
ual feelings, for they were thus freed from the necessity of
painting large scenes on the walls of State buildings (§ 572).
As we have already learned (§ 550), no oil colors were known
in the ancient world, but the Greek painters now adopted the
Egyptian method of mixing their colors in melted wax and
then applying the fluid wax with a brush to a wooden tablet
(Plate VIII, p. 654). The painter could then work in his own
studio to please his own fancy, and could sell his paintings to
any private purchaser who wished to buy. It thus became cus-
tomary for people of wealth to set up paintings in their own
houses, and in this way private support of art was much fur-
thered, and painting made great progress.

An Athenian painter named ApoUodorus now began to notice 650. Discov-
that the light usually fell on an object from one side, leaving the pa^nt light,
unlighted side so dark that but little color showed on that side,
while on the lighted side the colors came out very brightly.
When he painted a woman's arm in this way, lo, it looked round
and seemed to stand out from the surface of the painting
(Fig. 197) ; whereas up in the Painted Porch all the human limbs
in the old painting of Marathon (§ 572) looked perfectly flat.
By representing figures in the background of his paintings, as

4IO

Ancient Times

Fig. 197. A Wall-Painting at Pompeii showing the Sacri-
fice OF Iphigenia

The works of the great fourth-century artists (§651) have all perished,
but it is supposed that the later house decorators and wall-painters of
Italy copied the old masterpieces. Hence the scene here shown prob-
ably conveys some impression of old Greek painting. The scene shows
us the maid Iphigenia as she is carried away to be slain as a sacrifice.
The figure at the left, standing with veiled face, suggests, as often in
modern art, the dreadfulness of a coming catastrophe, which human
eyes are unwilling to behold. Note the skill with which human limbs
are made to show thickness and roundness (§ 650)

smaller than those in front Apollodorus also introduced what we
now call perspective. As a result, his paintings had an appear-
ance of depth, and when he painted the interior of a house one

The Higher Life of the Greeks

411

seemed to be looking into the very room itself. He was called
by the Athenians the " shadow painter," and the good old-
fashioned folk shook their heads at his work, preferring the
old style. Even the great philosopher Plato (§ 671) con-
demned this new method of painting as employing devices
and creating illusions of depth which were really deception.

A B

Fig. 198. Greek Boy pulling out a Thorn {A) and a Later

Caricature of the Thorn Puller {B)

The graceful figure of the slender boy so seriously striving to remove
the thorn was probably wrought not long after the Persian Wars. It
was very popular in antiquity, as it has also been in modern times. The
comical caricature {B) in clay (terra cotta), though it has lost one foot,
is a delightful example of Greek humor expressed in parody (§ 652)

Nevertheless, the new method triumphed, and the younger 651. Tri-
painters who adopted it produced work which was the talk of n^method
the town. People gossiped about it and told how a painter of parting
named Zeuxis, in order to outdo his rival Parrhasius, had painted
grapes so naturally that the birds flew up to the painting and
pecked at them. Thereupon Parrhasius invited Zeuxis over to
his studio to inspect a painting of his. Zeuxis found it covered

412

Ancient Times

with a curtain which he attempted to draw aside. But his hand
fell on a painted surface and he discovered to his confusion that
the curtain was no more real than his own painted grapes had

been. Unfortunately, all
such Greek paintings
have perished, and we
have only later copies
(Fig. 197) at Pompeii.
The vase-painters of
the time likewise often
copied the famous works
of the leading sculptors
and painters. But after
a wonderful revival in
the last Peloponnesian
war, the art of vase-
painting passed into a
melancholy decline from
which it never recovered.
At the same time, in
order to meet the rising
desire for objects of art
among the people, small
artists began to furnish
delightful miniature cop-
ies of famous classic
works, or again they
made delicious carica-
tures of such well-known
classics (Fig. 198, B). At
the same time even stone-
cutters wrought tomb-
stones, bearing reliefs done with a soft and melancholy beauty,
breathing the wistful uncertainty with which the Greeks of this
age were beginning to look out into the shadow world (Fig. 199;.

Fig. 199. Athenian Gravestone
SHOWING A Daughter saying Fare-
well TO HER Parents

This tombstone of a young girl shows us
the fine feeling of which even a grave-
yard stonecutter was capable. He has
depicted the last farewell of the parents,
as their daughter is carried away by death.
The mother, seated at the left, grasps the
young girl's hand, while the father stands
with his fingers in his beard in somber
and meditative reconciliation

The Higher Life of the Greeks 413

Section 62. Religion, Literature, and Thought

Any young Athenian bom at about the time of Pericles' 653. The.
death found himself in an age of conflict wherever he went: after the
an age of conflict abroad on the field of battle as he stood with pg^-^i^g
spear and shield in the Athenian ranks in the long years of
warfare between Athens, Sparta, and Thebes; an age of
conflict at home in Athens amid the excited shouting and
applause of the turbulent Assembly or the tumult and even
bloodshed of the streets and markets of the city as the common
people, the democracy, struggled with the nobles for the leader-
ship of the State ; and finally in an age of conflict in himself 2iS
he felt his once confident faith in old things struggling to
maintain itself against new views.

He recalled the childhood tales of the gods, which he had 654. The
heard at his nurse's knee. When he had asked her how Athena
and the gods looked, she had pointed to a beautiful vase in his
father's house, bearing graceful paintings of Athena presenting
the olive tree to the Athenians, and of the angry Sea-god
striking his trident into the ground and leaving a mark which
the lad's nurse had shown him at the Erechtheum on the
Acropolis (p. 394). There were the gods on the vase in human
form, and so he had long thought of them as people like those
of Athens. He had learned, too, that they were near by, for
he had seen his father present gifts to them at household
feasts. Later when he went to school and memorized long
passages of the Homeric poems, he had learned more about
their adventures on earth. Then he had stood on the edge of
the crowd with his parents watching the magnificent State
feasts, like the Panathenaea (§570), supported at great expense,
in order to honor the gods and keep them favorable to Athens.
Hence everyone seemed to him to believe that the gods had
all power over Athens. On such occasions he vaguely felt the
majesty and grandeur of the great gods, but when he looked
upon figures of them, sculptured by such artists as Praxiteles

414

Ancient Times

(Fig. 194), the gods again appeared very much like earthly
folk, as he had seen them on the vase in his childhood.

He never had any religious instruction, for there was nothing
like a church, a clergy, or any religious teachers. There was no
sacred book revered by all, like our Bible. He had not been
taught that the gods had any interest in him or his conduct, or
that they required him to be either good or bad. As long as he
did not neglect any of the ceremonies desired by the gods,
he knew he need have no fear of them. At the same time if
he lived an evil Jjfe, he realized that he might be condemned to
enter at death a dark and gruesome dwelling place beneath
the earth (§ 488). On the other hand, a good life might bring
him at last to the beautiful Elysian fields (§ 489).

One of the ways of reaching this place of blessedness was by
initiation into the mysteries at Eleusis (§ 489). Another way
was to follow the teachings of the beggar-priests and sooth-
sayers of Orpheus. These wandering teachers, like traveling
revival preachers of to-day, went about in all Greece, followed
by hordes of the poor and ignorant, who eagerly accepted their
mysterious teachings, promising every blessing to those who
listened and obeyed. The more mysterious it all was the better
the multitude liked it. These teachings were recorded in the
wonderful book of Orpheus, which finally gained wide circula-
tion among the common people. It came nearer to being the
sacred book of the Greeks than any that ever arose among
them. All the lower classes believed in magic and were deeply
impressed by the mysterious " stunts " of the magicians and
soothsayers whom they constantly consulted on all the ordinary
acts of life.

Down at Piraeus, the harbor town, the Athenian citizen
found the busy streets crowded with foreign merchants from
Egypt, Phoenicia, and Asia Minor. They, too, had their assur-
ances of divine help and blessedness, and they brought with
them their strange gods : the Great Mother from Asia Minor,
Isis from her lovely temple at the First Cataract of the Nile

The Higher Life of the Greeks 415

(Plate V. p. 444), and Egyptian Am on from his mysterious
shrine far away in the Sahara (Fig. 205), behind the Greek
city of Cyrene (see map, p. 436). The famous Greek poet
Pindar had written a poem in his honor, and erected a statue
of the great Egyptian god. As a deliverer of oracles reveal-
ing the future, Arrion had now become as great a favorite
among the Greeks themselves as Apollo of Delphi (§ 490).
There was an Athenian ship which regularly plied between
the Piraeus and Cyrene, carrying the Greeks to Amon's dis-
tant Sahara shrine. Egyptian symbols too were common
on Greek tombstones.

Some of these foreign beliefs had once greatly impressed our 658. The
citizen in his younger days. Then when he left his boyhood citizen's later
.teacher behind, and went to hear the lectures of a noted uncertainties
Sophist (§ 561), he found that no one knew with any certainty
whether the gods even existed ; much less did anyone know
what they were like. He now looked with some pity at the
crowds of pilgrims who filled the sacred road leading to the
hall of the mysteries at Eleusis. He had only contempt for
the mob which filled the processions of the strange oriental
gods, and almost every day marched with tumult and flute-
playing through the streets of Athens. While he could not
follow such superstitions of the ignorant poor, he found, never-
theless, that he was not yet quite ready to throw away the gods
and reject them altogether, as some of his educated neighbors
were doing.

He recalled the days of his youth, when he had detested 659. The

victory of

these very doubts which he had now taken up. With great doubt and
enjoyment he had once beheld the caricatures of Aristophanes, o^^^uri^ides
the greatest of the comedy writers (§ 582). Our citizen had
shouted with delight at Aristophanes' mockery of the doubts
and mental struggles of Euripides (§ 581), or the ridicule which
the clever comedy heaped upon the Sophists. Since then,
however, had come the new light which he had gained from the
Sophists. Whatever the gods might be like, he was sure that

4i6

Ancient Times

they were not such beings as he found pictured among his
heroic forefathers in the Homeric poems. Now he had long
since cast aside his Homer. In spite of Aristophanes, he and

his educated friends were all read-
ing the splendid tragedies of
Euripides (§ 581), with their un-
certainties, struggles, and doubts
about life and the gods. Euripides,
the victim of Aristophanes' ridi-
cule, to whom the Athenians had
rarely voted a victory during his
lifetime (§ 581), had now tri-
umphed , but his triumph meant
the defeat of the old, the victory
of doubt, the overthrow of the
gods, and the incoming of a new
age in thought and belief. But
the old died hard, and the struggle
was a tragic one.

The citizen remembered well
another comedy of Aristophanes,
which had likewise found a ready
response from the Athenian audi-
ence. It had placed upon the
stage the rude and comical figure
of a poor Athenian named Soc-
rates, whom Aristophanes had
represented as a dangerous man,
to be shunned or even chastised
by good Athenians. He was the
son of a stonecutter, or small
sculptor. The ill-clothed figure and ugly face (Fig. 200) of
Socrates had become familiar in the streets to all the folk of
Athens since the outbreak of the 'second war with Sparta. He
was accustomed to stand about the market place all day long,

Fig. 200. Portrait of
Socrates

This is not the best of the
numerous surviving portraits
of Socrates, but it is especially
interesting because it bears
under the philosopher's name
nine inscribed lines contain-
ing a portion of his public de-
fense as reported by Plato in
his Apology

The Higher Life of the Greeks 417

engaging in conversation anyone he met, and asking a great
many questions. Our citizen recalled that Socrates' questions
left him in a very confused state of mind, for he seemed to call
in question everything which the citizen had once regarded
as setded.

Yet this familiar and homely figure of the stonecutter's son 661. The
was the personification of the best and highest in Greek genius, chief interes
Without desire for office or a political career, Socrates' supreme ^^ Socrates
interest nevertheless was the State. He believed that the State,
made up as it was of citizens, could be purified and saved only
by the improvement of the individual citizen through the educa-
tion of his mind to recognize virtue and right.

Herein lies the supreme achievement of Socrates ; namely, 662. His be
his unshakable conviction that the human mind is able to recog- power to dis
nize and determine what are virtue and right, truth, beauty and t^JJjis^as^iTc
honesty, and all the other great ideas which mean so much to and to shape

his conduct

human life. To him these ideas had reality. He taught that by them
by keen questioning and discussion it is possible to reject error
and discern these realities. Inspired by this impregnable belief,
Socrates went about in Athens, engaging all his fellow citizens
in such discussion, convinced that he might thus lead each
citizen in turn to a knowledge of the leading and compelling
virtues. Furthermore, he firmly believed that the citizen who
had once recognized these virtues would shape every action and
all his life by them. Socrates thus revealed the power of virtue
and of similar ideas by argument and logic, but he made no
appeal to religion as an influence toward good conduct. Never-
theless, he showed himself a deeply religious man, believing with
devout heart in the gods, although they were not exactly those
of the fathers, and even feeling, like the Hebrew prophets,
that there was a divine voice within him, calling him to his
high mission.

The simple but powerful personality of this greatest of 663. Public
Greek teachers often opened to him the houses of the rich socrates^
and noble. His fame spread far and wide, and when the

4i8

Ancient Times

654. The trial
and death of
Socrates
(399 B.C.)

665. The in-
fluence of
Socrates
after his
death

Delphian oracle (§ 490) was asked who was the wisest of the
living, it responded with the name of Socrates. A group of
pupils gathered about him, among whom the most famous
was Plato. But his aims and his noble efforts on behalf of the
Athenian State were misunderstood. His keen questions seemed
to throw doubt upon all the old beliefs. The Athenians had
already vented their displeasure on more than one leading
Sophist who had rejected the old faith and teaching (§ 593).

So the Athenians summoned Socrates to trial for corrupting
the youth with all sorts of doubts and impious teachings. Such
examples as Alcibiades, who had been his pupil, seemed con-
vincing illustrations of the viciousness of his teaching; many
had seen and still more had read with growing resentment
the comedy of Aristophanes which held him up to contempt
and execration. Socrates might easily have left Athens when
the complaint was lodged against him. Nevertheless he appeared
for trial, made a powerful and dignified defense, and, when the
• court voted the death penalty, passed his last days in tranquil
conversation with his friends and pupils, in whose presence
he then quietly drank the fatal hemlock (399 B.C.). Thus the
Athenian democracy, which had so fatally mismanaged the
affairs of the nation in war, brought upon itself much greater
reproach in condemning to death, even though in accordance
with law, the greatest and purest soul among its citizens
(headpiece, p. 425).

The undisturbed serenity of Socrates in his last hours, as
pictured to us in Plato's idealized version of the scene, pro-
foundly affected the whole Greek world and still forms one of
the most precious possessions of humanity. He was the great-
est Greek, and in him Greek civilization reached its highest
level. But the glorified figure of Socrates, as he appears in the
writings of his pupils, was to prove more powerful even than
the living teacher.

Meantime there had been growing up a body of scientific
knowledge about the visible world, which men had never

The Higher Life of the Greeks 419

possessed before. Moreover this new scientific knowledge was 666. Spread
no longer confined to the few philosophers who were its dis- knowledge
coverers, as formerly had been the case (§ 564). Our doubt- p^o^ilf *^^
ing citizen had at home a whole shelf of books on natural
science. It included a treatise on mathematics, an astronomy
in which the year was at last stated to contain 365^ days,
a zoology and a botany. There was also a mineralogy, a pam-
phlet on foretelling the weather, and a treatise on the calendar,
besides several geographies with maps of the world then known.
There were also practical books of guidance and instruction on
drawing, war, farming, raising horses, or even cooking.

There was in our citizen's library also a remarkable history, 667. Scien-
treating the fortunes of nations in the same way in which of history
natural science was treated. Its author was Thucydides, the
first scientific writer of history. A generation earlier Herodo-
tus' history (§ 567) had ascribed the fortunes of nations to
the will of the gods, but Thucydides, with an insight like that
of modern historians, traced historical events to their earthly
causes in the world of men where they occur. There stood the
two books, Herodotus and Thucydides, side by side in the citi-
zen's library. There were only thirty years or so between them,
but how different the beliefs of the two historians, the old and
the new ! Thucydides was one of the greatest writers of simple
and beautiful prose that ever lived. His book which told the
story of the long wars resulting in the fall of the Athenian
Empire was received by the Greeks with enthusiastic approval.
It has been one of the world's great classics ever since.

The success of Thucydides' work in prose shows that the 668. The
interest of the Athenians was no longer in poetry but in the poetry^nd
new and more youthful art of prose. Poetry, including play- '^^ triumph
writing, noticeably declined. A successful public speech was
now written down beforehand, and the demand for such ad-
dresses in the Assembly, and especially before the citizen-juries,
was a constant motive for the cultivation of skillful prose
writing and public speaking.

420 Ancient Times

669. Athens The teachers of rhetoric at Athens, the successors of the
education; ^^ Sophists (§ 562), became world renowned, and they made
isocrates ^^ ^^^^ ^^ Center of education for the whole Greek world.

The leader among them was Isocrates, the son of a well-to-do
flute manufacturer. Having "lost his father's fortune in the
Peloponnesian Wars, he turned for a living to the teaching of
rhetoric, in which he soon showed great ability. He chose as
his theme the great political questions of his time. He was not
a good speaker, and he therefore devoted himself especially
to the writing of his speeches, which he then published as
political essays. Throughout Greece these remarkable essays
were read, and Isocrates finally became the political spokesman
of Athens, if not of all Greece.

670. Rise of Notwithstanding the new interest in natural science, the
govenTment^ affairs of men rather than of nature were the burning questions

at Athens. How should the governmental affairs of a commu-
nity of men be conducted ? — what should be the proper form
of a free state ? — these were the problems which Athenian
experience and the efforts of Socrates toward an enlightened
citizenship had thrust into the foreground. What should be the
form of the ideal state ? The Orient had already had its social
idealism. In the Orient, however, it had never occurred to the
social dreamers to discuss the fo7-m of government of the ideal
state. They accepted as a matter of course the monarchy under
which they lived as the obvious form for the State. But in
Greece the question of the form of government, whether a king-
dom, a republic, or an aristocracy, was now earnestly discussed.
Thus there arose a new science, the science of government.

671. Plato Plato, the most gifted pupil of Socrates, published much of

his beloved master's teaching in the form of dialogues, sup-
posedly reproducing the discussions of the great teacher him-
self. Then after extensive travels in Egypt and the west he
returned to Athens, where he set up his school in the grove
of the Academy (§ 558). Convinced of the hopelessness of
democracy in Athens, he reluctantly gave up all thought of a

The Higher Life of the Greeks 421

career as a statesman, to which he had been strongly drawn,
and settled down at Athens to devote himself to teaching.

Plato was both philosopher and poet. The ideas which 672. Plato's
Socrates maintained the human mind could discern, became oHhe So^-^"*
for Plato eternal realities, having an existence independent of ^^^^^'^ ^^^^^
man and his mind. The human soul, he taught, had always
existed, and in an earlier state had beheld the great ideas of
goodness, beauty, evil, and the like, and had gained an intuitive
vision of them which in this earthly life the soul now recalled
and recognized again. The elect souls, gifted with such vision,
were the ones to control the ideal state, for they would neces-
sarily act in accordance with the ideas of virtue and justice
which they had discerned. It was possible by education, thought
Plato, to lead the souls of men to a clear vision of these ideas.

In a noble essay entitled The Republic Plato presented a 673. Plato's
lofty vision of his ideal state. Here live the enlightened souls
governing society in righteousness and justice. They do no
work, but depend on craftsmen and slaves for all menial labor.
And yet the comforts and leisure which they enjoy are the
product of that very world of industry and commerce in a
Greek city which Plato so thoroughly despises. The plan
places far too much dependence on education and takes no
account of the dignity and importance of labor in human
society. Moreover, Plato's ideal state is the self-contained, self-
controlling city-state as it had in times past supposedly existed
in Greece. He failed to perceive that the vital question for
Greece was now the relation of these city-states to each other.
He did not discern that the life of a cultivated state unavoid-
ably expands beyond its borders, and by its needs and its
contributions affects the life of surrounding states. It cannot
be confined within its political borders, for its commercial borders
lie as far distant as its galleys can carry its produce.

Thus boundary lines cannot separate nations ; their life over- 674. Growth
laps and interfuses with the life round about them. It was so jzed world
within Greece, and it was so far beyond the borders of Greek

422 Ancient Times

territory. There had grown up a civilized world which was
reading Greek books, using Greek utensils, fitting up its houses
with Greek furniture, decorating its house interiors with Greek
paintings, building Greek theaters, learning Greek tactics in
war — a great Mediterranean and oriental world bound to-
gether by lines of commerce, travel, and common economic
interests. For this world, as a coming political unity, the lofty
idealist Plato, in spite of his travels, had no eyes. To this
world, once dominated by oriental culture, the Greeks had
given the noblest and sanest ideas yet attained by the mind
of civilized man, and to this world likewise the Greeks should
have given political leadership.

675. Motives Men in practical life, like Isocrates, clearly understood the
isocrateTand situation at this time. Isocrates urged the Greeks to bury their
Xenophon petty differences and expand their purely sectional patriotism

into loyalty toward a great nation which should unite the whole
Greek world. He told his countrymen that, so united, they
could easily overthrow the decaying Persian Empire and make
themselves lords of the world, whereas now, while they con-
tinued to fight among themselves, the king of Persia could do
as he pleased with them. In an inspiring address distributed to
the Greeks at the Olympic games, he said : " Anyone coming
from abroad and observing the present situation of Greece
would regard us as great fools struggling among ourselves
about trifles, and destroying our own land, when without dan-
ger we might conquer Asia." To all Greeks who had read
Xenophon 's story of the march of his Ten Thousand, the
weakness of the Persian Empire was obvious. Every motive
toward unity was present.

676. Unaiter- Nevertheless, no Greek city was willing to submit to the
the^nd oT " leadership of another. Local patriotism, like the sectionalism
Srdeveio'^* which brought on our Civil War, prevailed, and unalterable dis-
ment union was the end of Greek political development. As a result

the Greeks were now to be subjected by an outside power,
which had never had any share in advancing Greek culture

The Higher Life of the Greeks 423

(§ 678). Thus the fine theories of the ideal form of the state
so warmly discussed at Athens were now to be met by the
hard fact of irresistible power in the hands of a single ruler —
the form of power which the Greek republics had in vain striven
to destroy.

But in spite of this final and melancholy collapse of Greek 677. Suprem-
political power, which even the wealth and splendor of the west- genius in
ern Greek cities in Italy and Sicily, like Syracuse, had not been po\^tical
able to prevent, what an incomparably glorious age of Greek collapse
civilization was this which we have been sketching ! The rival-
ries which proved so fatal to the political leadership of the
Greeks had been a constant incentive spurring them all on, as
each city strove to surpass its rivals in art and literature and all
the finest things in civilization. Great as the age of Pericles
had been, the age that followed was still greater. The tiny
Athenian state, with a population not larger than that of our
little state of Delaware in 19 10, and having at best twenty-five
or thirty thousand citizens, had furnished in this period a group
of great names in ali lines of human achievement, such as never
in all the history of the world arose in an area and a population
so limited. In a book like this we have been able to offer only
a few hints of all that these men of Athens accomplished.
Their names to-day are among the most illustrious in human
history, and the achievements which we link with them form
the greatest chapter in the higher life of man. Furthermore,
Greek genius was to go on to many another future triumph,
in spite of the loss of that political leadership which we are now
to see passing into other hands.

QUESTIONS

Section 61. Was Athens now able to support great works of art
as in the days of Pericles.? What was the effect upon art.? What
lovely building was nevertheless erected on the Acropolis? What
new style of architecture was coming in .? How did it differ from the
older Doric and Ionic styles ? Describe the Mausoleum. How did

424 Ancient Times

the sculpture of Praxiteles differ from that of Phidias ? What kind
of figures did Scopas love to carve ? What new process of producing
portable paintings came in? What new method of painting did
Apollodorus introduce? What popular stories about the feats. of the
new shadow painters arose ? Have any of these paintings survived ?
How do we know how they looked ? What kind of small works did
the lesser artists produce ?

Section 62. In what respects was the age following Pericles one
of conflict ? What did an Athenian child of this time learn about the
gods at home ? at school ? at public celebrations ? from great works
of art ? Had he had any religious instruction ? What did he believe
about his own conduct and the relation of the gods to it ? What did
the common people believe? What teachers did they follow? Did
they show intelligence or superstition in religious matters?

What foreign divinities were coming in ? Tell about them. What
did the educated citizen think about the beliefs of the common
people? What had once been his feeling about religious doubt?
Whose comedies had mocked such doubt? From whom did such
a citizen himself learn to doubt? Whose tragedies were he and
his friends reading? Did this mean the suppression or the triumph
of doubt?

How did one of the comedies of Aristophanes represent Socrates ?
How did Socrates spend most of his time? What was his purpose
in doing this ? Can you sum up his teachings ? Was he then an evil
man ? Was he irreligious ? What was the general opinion about his
wisdom ? about his character ? What did the Athenians finally do in
order to silence Socrates? Tell about his trial and death. Did his
influence cease at his death ?

What was the condition of scientific knowledge at Athens ? How
did the history of Thucydides differ from that of Herodotus ? How
much time had elapsed between them ? What can you say of prose
and poetry in this age? Who was the leading teacher of rhetoric
and prose writing at Athens ? What can you say of his own writing ?
What new science was arising? What can you say of the life of
Plato ? What did he teach about government ? What great question
did he fail to perceive ? What civilized world was growing up ? Why
had not the Greeks given this world of Greek culture also political
unity? How did practical men like Isocrates feel about this prob-
lem ? Did the Greeks follow his advice ? What was to be the result ?

CHAPTER XIX

ALEXANDER THE GREAT

Section 63. The Rise of Macedonia

On the northern frontiers in the mountains of the Balkan Pen-
insula Greek civilization gradually faded and disappeared, merg-
ing into the barbarism which had descended from Stone Age
Europe. These backward Northerners, such as the Thracians,
spoke Indo-European tongues akin to Greek, but their Greek
kindred of the South could not understand them. A veneer

678. The un-
cultivated
states of the
Balkan Pen-
insula and .
the North

Note. The above headpiece shows us one of -the streets where it was the
custom of both the Greeks and Romans (Fig. 212, //, K) to bury their dead.
It was outside the Dipylon Gate (plan, p. 352), on the sacred way leading to
Eleusis, both sides of which were lined for some distance with marble tomb-
stones, of which Fig. 199 is an example. The Roman Sulla (§ 945), in his Eastern
war, while besieging Athens, piled up earth as a causeway leading to the top ©f
the wall of Athens (see plan, p. 352) at this point. The part of the cemetery which
he covered with earth was thus preserved, to be dug out in modem times — the
only surviving portion of such an ancient Greek street of tombs. In this ceme-
tery the Athenians of Socrates' day were buried. The monument at the left shows
a brave Athenian youth on horseback, charging the fallen enemy. He was slain
in the Corinthian War (§ 633) and buried here a few years after the death of
Socrates (§ 664).

425

426 Ancient Times

of Greek civilization began here and there to mask somewhat
• the rough and uncultivated life of the peasant population of
Macedonia. The Macedonian kings began to cultivate Greek
literature and art. The mother of Philip of Macedon was
grateful that she had been able to learn to write in her old age.

679. Philip Philip himself had enjoyed a Greek education, and when he

of Macedon "T , , ^t 1 • • , — \ — ■

and his policy ^gained the i)()\vcr over Macedonia, m 360 p,.c., he understood
of expansion perfectly the situation of the disunited Greek wxirki. He
planned to make himself its master, and he began his task with
the ability both of a skilled statesman and an able soldier. With
clear recognition of the necessary means, he first created the
indispensable military power. As a hostage at Thebe§Jie_had^
learned_to lead an army under the eye of no less a master than
E£aminondas himself, the conqueror of the Spartai;Sj___But
Philip surpassed his teacher.

680. Philip From the peasant population of his kingdom Philip drew off
Macedonian ^ number large enough to form a permanent or standing army
infantry ^^ professional soldiers who never expected again to return to

the flocks and fields. These men he armed as heavy infantry of
the phalanx, as he had seen it in Greece ; only he made the pha-
lanx deeper and more massive and gave his men longer spears.
They soon became famous as the " Macedonian phalanx."

681. Mace- Heretofore horsemen had played but a small part in war in
men and Europe. Horses were plentiful in Philip's kingdom, and the
bination^of" "^bles forming a warrior class had always been accustomed to
cavalry and fight On horseback in a loose way, each for himself. Philip now

infantry in , , ,

unified dnlled these riders to move about and to attack in a single

operations rnass. The charge of such a mass of horsemen was so terrible
that it might of itself decide a battle. Philip then further im-
proved the art of war by a final step, the most important of all.
He so combined his heavy phalanx in the center^ with the disci-
plined masses of horsemen on each wing^ that the whole com-
bined force, infantry and cavalry, moved and operated as one
great unit, an irresistible machine in which every part worked
together with all the others.

Alexander the Great

427

This new chapter in the art of warfare was possible only
because a single mind was in unhampered control of the situ-
ation. The Greeks were now to witness the practical effective-
ness of one-man control as exercised by a skillful leader for
many years. With statesmanlike insight Philip first began his
conquests in the region where Jie might expect the least resist-
ance. He steadily extended the territory of his kingdom east-
ward and northward until it reached the Danube and the
Hellespont.

His progress ontlie.. north of
die y^gean soon brought him
into conflict with the interests of
The Greek states, which owned
cities in this northern region.
Philip's conquests were viewed
with mixed feelings at Athens,
toward which the Macedonian
king himself felt very friendly,
for he had the greatest admira-
tion for the Greeks. Two parties
therefore arose at Athens. One
of them was quite willing to
accept Philip's proffered friend-
ship, and recognized in him the
uniter and savior of the Greek
world. The leader of this party was Isocrates (§ 675), now an
aged man. The other party, on the contrary, denounced Philip
as a barbarous tyrant who was endeavoring to enslave the
free Greek cities.

The leader of this anti-Macedonian party was the great orator
Demosthenes (Fig. 201). In one passionate appeal after another
he addressed the Athenian people, as he strove to arouse them
to the growing danger threatening the Greek states with every
added triumph of Philip's powerful army. By the whirlwind of
his marvelous eloquence he carried the Athenian Assembly with

682. Practical

advantages

of one-man

control ;

Philip's

Northern

conquests

Fig. 201. Portrait Bust
OF Demosthenes

684. Demos-
thenes

428

Ancient Times

685. Philip
gams the
leadership
of the Greeks
(338 B.C.)

686. The

of Philip of
Macedon

687. Educa-
tion and
character of
Alexander
the Great

him. His " Philippics," as his denunciations of King Philip are
called, are among the greatest specimens of Greek eloquence,
and have become traditional among us as noble examples of
oratorical power inspired by high and patriotic motives. But
they were very immoderate in their abuse and denunciation of
his opponents in Athens, nor can it be said that they display a
statesmanlike understanding of the hopelessly disunited condi-
tion of the ever-warring Greek states.

The outcome of the struggle which unavoidably came on
between Philip and the Greek states showed that the views
of Isocrates, while less ideally attractive, were far more saga-
cious and statesmanlike than those of Demosthenes. After a
long series of hostilities Philip defeated the Greek forces in
a final baFde at Chaeronea" (338 B.C.), and firmly established
his position as head of a league of all the Greek states except
Sparta, which still held out against him. He had begun_oper-
ations in Asia Minor for the freedom of tHeGreek cities there,
~wEen two years after the battle of Chaeronea he was stabbed
by conspirators during the revelries at the wedding of his
daughter (336 B.C.).

The power passed into the hands of his son Alexander, a
youth of only twenty years. Fortunately Philip also left behind
him in the Macedonians of his court a group of remarkable
men, of imperial abilities. They were devoted to the royal
house, and Alexander's early successes were in no small
measure due to them. But their very devotion and ability,
as we shall see, later brought the young king into a personal
conflict which contained all the elements of a tremendous
tragedy (§ 709).

When Alexander was thirteen years of age his father had
summoned to the Macedonian court the great philosopher
Aristotle (§ y6o), a former pupil of Plato, to be the teacher
of the young prince. Und'er'Tiis instruction the lad learned to
know and love the masterpieces of Greek literature, especially
the Homeric songs. The deeds of the ancient heroes touched

Alexander the Great 429

and kindled his youthful imagination and lent a heroic tinge
to his whole character. As he grew older and his mind ripened,
his whole personality was imbued with the splendor of Greek
genius and Hellenic culture.

Section 64. Campaigns of Alexander the Great

The Greek states were still unwilling to submit to Mace- 688. Alex-
donian leadership, and they fancied they could overthrow so gate^g the ^"
youthful a ruler as Alexander. They were soon to learn how ^d^ecom?s
old a head there was on his young shoulders. When Thebes head of a
revolted against Macedonia for the second time after Philip's league
death, Alexander, knowing that he must take up the struggle
with Persia, realized that it would not be safe for him to march
into Asia without giving the Greek states a lesson which they
would not soon forget. He therefore captured and completely
destroyed the ancient city of Thebes, sparing only the house of
the great poet Pindar. All Greece was thus taught to fear and
respect his power, but learned at the same time to recognize
his reverenceTof "Greek genius. Feeling him to be their natural
leader, therefore, the Greek states, witE"the exception of Sparta,
formed a league and elected Alexander as its leader and general.
As a result they all sent troops to increase his army.

The Asiatic campaign which Alexander now planned was to 689. Alex-
vindicate his position as the champion of Hellas against Asia. chamVon
He thought to lead the united Greeks against the Persian lord ^^ ¥^^^^f .

- . - . o against Asia

of Asia, as the Hellenes had once made common cause against
Asiatic Troy (§ 411). Leading his army of Macedonians and
allied Greeks into Asia Minor, he therefore stopped at Troy
and camped upon the plain (Fig. 151, and map, p. 436) where
the Greek heroes of the Homeric songs had once fought. Here
he worshiped in the temple of Athena, and prayed for the suc-
cess of his cause against Persia. He thus contrived to throw
around himself the heroic atmosphere of the Trojan War,
till all Hellas beheld the dauntless figure of the Macedonian

430

Ancient Times

youth, as it were, against the background of that glorious age
which in their belief had so long ago united Greek arms
against Asia (§411).

Meantime the Great King had hired thousands of Greek
heavy-armed infantry, and they were now to do battle against
their own Greek countrymen. At the river Granicus, in hisjirgt
critical battle, Alexander had no difficulty in scattering the forces
of the western Persian satraps. Following the Macedonian
custom, the young king, then but twenty-two years of age, led
his troops into the thick of the fray and exposed his royal
person without hesitation. But for the timely support of Clitus,
the brother of his childhood nurse, who bravely pushed in before
him at a critical nloment, the impetuous young king would have
lost his life in the action on the Granicus. Marching southward,
he took the Greek cities one by one and freed all western Asia
Minor forever from the Persian yoke.

Meantime a huge Persian fleet was master of the Mediter-
ranean. It was at this juncture that the young Macedonian,
little more than a boy in years, began to display his mastery
of a military situation which demanded the completest under-
standing of the art of war. He had left a strong force at home,
and he believed that the lesson of his destruction of Thebes
would prevent the Persian fleet in the ^gean from arousing
Hellas to rebellion against him during his absence. He there-
fore pushed boldly eastward. Following the route of the Ten
Thousand, Alexander led his army safely through the diffi-
cult pass, called the Cilician Gates (see map, p. 436), and
rounded the northeast corner of the Mediterranean. Here,
as he looked out upon the Fertile Crescent, there was spread
out before him the vast Asiatic world of forty million souls,
where the family of the Great King had been supreme for two
hundred years. In this great arena he was to be the champion
for the next ten years {^2>Z2>~2>'^Z b.c.).

At this important point, by the Gulf of Issue, Alexander met
the main army of PeFsTapunder the persoriaTcommand of the

Alexander the Great 431

Great King, Darius III, tlie last of the Persian line. The tac-
tics of his father Philip and Epaminondas, always to be the
attacking party, were now adopted by Alexander, in spite of yfissus
the enemy's strong defensive position behind a stream. His
attack was on the old plan of the oblique battle line (§ 638),
with the cavalry forming the right wing nearest the enemy.
Heading this cavalry charge himself, Alexander led his Mace-
donian horsemen across the stream in such a fierce assault
(Fig. 202) that the opposing Persian wing gave way. Along
the center and the other wing, the batde was hotly fought and
indecisive. But as Alexander's victorious horsemen of the right
wing turned and attacked the exposed Persian center in the
flank, the Macedonians swept the Asiatics from the field, and
the disorderly retreat of Darius never stopped until it had crossed
the Euphrates. The Great King then sent a letter to Alexander
desiring terms of peace and offering to accept the Euphrates as
a boundary between them, all Asia west of that river to be
handed over to the IVIacedonians.

It was a dramatic picture, the figure of the young king, 693. The
standing with this letter in his hand. As he pondered it he was afteflssus
surrounded by a group of the ablest Macedonian youth, who ^"^ Alexan-

•' * •' der's friends

had grown up around him as his closest friends; but likewise
by old and trusted counselors upon whom his father before him
had leaned. The hazards of battle and of march, and the daily
associations of camp and bivouac, had wrought the closest bonds
of love and friendship and intimate influence between these
loyal Macedonians and their ardent young king.

As he considered the letter of Darius, therefore, his father's 694. The
old general Parmenio, who had commanded the Macedonian plrmenio
left wing in the battle just won, proffered him serious counsel. ^ accept

° J » r- Persian terms

We can almost see the old man leaning familiarly over the after issus
shoulder of this imperious boy of twenty-three and pointing out
across the Mediterranean, as he bade Alexander remember the
Persian fleet operating there in his rear and likely to stir up
revolt against him in Greece.. He said too that with Darius

432

Alexander the Great

433

behind the Euphrates, as proposed in the letter, Persia would
be at a safe distance from Europe and the Greek world. The
campaign against the Great King, he urged, had secured all
that could reasonably be expected. Undoubtedly he added that
Philip himself, the young king's father, had at the utmost no
further plans against Persia than those already successfully '"
carried out. There was nothing to do, said Parmenio, but to
accept the terms offered by the Great King.

In this criticaldecision lay the parting of the ways. Before 695. The de-
the kindling eyes of the young Alexander there rose a vision issus, and
of world empire dominated by Greek civilization — a vision to f^jc^orfwith
which the duller eyes about him were entirely closed. He his friends
waved aside his father's old counselors and decided to advance
to the conquest of the whole Persian Empire. In this far-
reaching decision he disclosed at once the powerful personality
which represented a new age. Thus arose the conflict which
never ends — the conflict between the new age and the old,

* The artist who designed this great work has selected the supreme
moment when the Persians (at the right) are endeavoring to rescue their
king from the onset of the Macedonians (at the left). Alexander, the
bareheaded figure on horseback at the left, charges furiously against
the Persian king (Darius III), who stands in his chariot (at the right).
The Macedonian attack is so impetuous that the Persian king's life is
endangered. A Persian noble dismounts and offers his riderless horse,
that the king may quickly mount and escape. Devoted Persian nobles
heroically ride in between their king and the Macedonian onset, to give
Darius an opportunity to mount. But Alexander's spear has passed
entirely through the body of one of these Persian nobles, who has thus
given his life for his king. Darius throws out his hand in grief and
horror at the awful death of his noble friend. The driver of the royal
chariot (behind the king) lashes his three horses, endeavoring to carry
Darius from the field in flight (§ 692). This magnificent battle scene is
put together from bits of colored glass (mosaic) forming a floor pave-
ment, discovered in 1831 at the Roman town of Pompeii (Fig. 255). It
has been injured in places, especially at the left, where parts of the
figures of Alexander and his horse have disappeared. It was originally
laid at Alexandria and suffered this damage in being moved to Italy.
It is a copy of an older Hellenistic work, a painting done at Alexandria
(§ 738)- It is one of the greatest scenes of heroism in battle ever
painted, and illustrates the splendor of Hellenistic art.

434

Ancient Times

just as we have seen it at Athens (§ 653). Never has it been
more dramatically staged than as we find it here in the daily
growing friction between Alexander and that group of devoted,
if less gifted, Macedonians who were now drawn by him into
the labors of Heracles — the conquest of the world.

The danger from the Persian fleet was now carefully and
deliberately met by a march southward along the eastern end
of the Mediterranean. All the Phoenician seaports on the way
were captured. Here Alexander's whole campaign would have
collapsed but for the siege machinery, the use of which his
father had learned from the western Greeks, Against the walls
of Tyre, Alexander employed machines which had been devised
in the Orient (headpiece, p. 140), and which he was now bring-
ing back thither with Greek improvements. Feeble Egypt,
solong a Persian province, then fell an easy prey to the
Macedonian arms. The Persian fleet, tlius deprived of all its
home harbors and eiit ofl' from its home government, soon
scattered and disappeared.

~~ Having thus cut off the enemy in his rear, Alexander re-
turned from Egypt to Asia, and, marching along the Fertile
Crescent, he crossed the Tigris close by the mounds which had
long covered the ruins of Nineveh (Fig. 203). Here, near
Arbela, the Great King had gathered his forces for a last
stand. The Persians had not studied the progress in the art
of war made by the Greeks and the Macedonians (§ 681), and
'l;hey were as hopelessly behind the times as China was in her
war with Japan. They had prepared one new device, a body
of chariots with scythes fastened to the axles and projecting
on each side. But the device failed to save the Persian army.
Although greatly outnumbered, the Macedonians crushed the
Asiatic army and forced the Great King into ignominious flight.
In a few days Alexander was established in the winter palace
of Persia in Babylon (§ 274).

As Darius fled into the eastern mountains he was stabbed
by "his own treacherous attendants' (330 B.C.). Alexander rodel

Alexander the Great

435

Fig. 203. View across the Ruins of Nineveh to the Plain

WHERE Alexander the Great overthrew the Last Army

OF the Persian Empire

We are supposed to be standing on the roof of a house in the modern
town of Mosul (see plan, p. 154) and looking eastward across the Tigris
to the ruins of Nineveh, with mound of Kuyunjik, containing the palaces
of Sennacherib and Assurbanipal, directly before us. Past this mound
(compare plan, p. 154) runs the road from Mosul to Arbela, about
30 miles east. These ruins must have been much like this when Alex-
ander marched past them, less than three hundred years after the city
was destroyed. Somewhere in the plain toward Arbela, Alexander won
his last battle with the Persians (§ 697). Although no systematic clear-
ance of all the chief buildings, such as the French and Germans have
accomplished at Sargonburg (Khorsabad), Assur, and Babylon, has ever
been done here, a great many important monuments have been dug
out, like the library of Assurbanipal (§ 226)

up with a few of his officers in time to look upon the body of 698. Death

11 ci-ri' 111/-A-1 ^^ Darius III

the last of the Persian emperors, the lord of Asia, whose vast (330 b.c.) -,
realm had now passed into his hands. He punished the mur- i^i-d^ofthe
derers and sent the body with all respect to the fallen ruler's ancient East

436

Ancient Times

Fig. 204. A Corner of the Court of
THE Palace of Darius I at Susa, cap-
tured BY Alexander the Great (as
restored by Pillet)

The remarkable French excavations at Susa
discovered the wonderful relief of Naram-Sin
(Fig. 89), and the shaft bearing the code of
Hammurapi (Fig. 93). At the same time the
French uncovered the ruins of the palace
built by Darius I in the days of Marathon
and finished later under Xerxes at the time
of Salamis, a hundred and fifty years before
Alexander captured Susa. The French archi-
tect's restoration shows the Persian em-
peror and his attendants coming forth into a
court of the palace. We see the gorgeous
glazed-brick decorations along the base of
the wall, showing lines of Persian soldiers, as
in Fig. 113. It must have looked just as we
see it here, when Alexander entered it for
the first time, to take possession of the dead
Persian emperor's magnificent residence

mother and sister, to
whom he had extended
protection and hospi-
tality. Thus at last
both the valley of the
Nile and the Fertile
Crescent, the homes
of the earliest two
civilizations, whose
long and productive
careers we have al-
ready sketched, were
now in the hands of
a European power
and under the control
of a newer and higher
civilization. Less than
five years had passed
since the young Mace-
donian had entered
Asia.

Although the Mace-
donians had nothing
more to fear from the
Persian arms, there
still remained much
for Alexander to do in
order to establish his
empire in Asia. On
he marched through
the original litde king-
dom of the Persian
kings, whence Cyrus,
the founder of the
Persian Empire, had

E Rn° \ from

REAT

I Great

der

lexander

Alexander the Great 437

victoriously issued over two hundred years t)efore (see § 258).
He stopped at Susa (Fig. 204) and then passed on to visit the
tomb of Cyrus (Fig. 115), near Persepolis. Here he gave a
dramatic evidence of his supremacy in Asia by setting fire to
the Persian palace (Fig. 116) with his own hand, as the Persians
had once done to Miletus and to the temples on the Athenian
Acropolis. It was but a symbolical act, and Alexander ordered
the flames extinguished before serious damage was done.

After touching Ecbatana in the north, and leaving behind 700. Alex-
the trusted Parmenio in charge of the enormous treasure of paigns^in^"^
gold and silver, accumulated for generations by the Persian E^ff"^
kings, Alexander again moved eastward. In the course of the 324 b.c.)
next five years, while the Greek world looked on in amaze-
ment, the young Macedonian seemed to disappear in the mists
on the far-off fringes of the known world. He marched his
army in one vast loop after another through the heart of the
Iranian plateau (see map, p. 436), northward across the Oxus
and the Jaxartes rivers, southward across the Indus and the
frontiers of India, into the valley of the Ganges, where at last
the murmurs of his intrepid army forced him to turn back.

He descehded^tHe Indus, and even sailed the waters of the 701. Alexan-
Indian Ocean. Then he began his westward march again along to Babylon
the shores of the Indian Ocean, accompanied by a fleet which some^resu'lts
he had built on the Indus. The return march through desert of his Eastern

, .„ . . , campaigns

wastes cost many lives as the thirsty and ill-provisioned troops
dropped by the way. Over seven years after he had left the
great city of Babylon, Alexander entered it again. He had
been less than twelve years in Asia, and he had carried Greek
civilization into the very heart of the continent. At important
points along his line of march he had founded Greek cities
bearing Hs name and had set up kingdoms which were to be
centers of Greeks influence on the frontiers of India. From ^
such centers Greek art entered India, to become the source of
the art which still survives there ; and the Greek works of art,
especially coins, from Alexander's communities in these remote

438

Ancient Times

regions of the East penetrated even to China, to contribute to
the later art of China and Japan. Never before had East and
West so interpenetrated as in these amazing marches and cam-
paigns of Alexander.

702. Alexan-
der's scientific

Section 65. International Policy of Alexander:

ITS Personal Consequences

During all these unparalleled achievements the mind of this
young Hercules never ceased to busy itself with a thousand
problems on every side. He dispatched an exploring expedition
up the Nile to ascertain the causes of the annual overflow of
the river, and another to the shores of the Caspian Sea to build
a fleet and circumnavigate that sea, the northern end of which
was still unknown. He brought a number of scientific men
with him from (Ireece, and with their aid he sent hundreds of
natural-history specimens home to Greece to his old teacher
Aristotle, then teaching in Athens.

Meantime he applied himself with diligence to the organiza-
tion and administration of his vast conquests. Such problems
must have kept him v/earily bending over many a huge pile
of state papers, or dictating his great plans to his secretaries
and officers. He believed implicitly in the power and superiority
of Greek culture. He was determined to Hellenize the world
and to merge Asia v\rith Europe by transplanting colonies of
Greeks. and Macedonians. In his army, Macedonians, Greeks,
and Asiatics stood side by side. He also felt that he could not
rule the world as a Macedonian, but must make concessions to
the Persian world (Plate VI, p. 468). jle married ^oxapa^ an
Asiatic princess, and at a goigeous wedding festival he obliged
his officers and friends also to marry the daughters of Asiatic
nobles. Thousands of Macedonians in the army followed the
example of their king and took Asiatic wives. He appointed
Persians to high offices and set them over provinces as satraps.
He even adopted Persian raiment in part.

Alexander the Great 439

Amid all this he carefully worked out a plan of campaign 704. Alexan-

for the conquest of the western Mediterranean. It included pfan?fo?the

instructions for the building of a fleet of a thousand batdeships thrTe^tem

with which to subdue Italy, Sicily, and Carthage. It also planned Mediter-

\ 11 1 ranean

the construction of a vast roadway along the northern coast

of Africa, to be built at an appalling expense and to furnish a

highway for his army from Egypt to Carthage and the Pillars of

Hercules (Gibraltar). It is here that Alexander's statesmanship

may be criticized. All this should have been done immediately

after the destruction of Persia. But Alexander seems not to

have perceived that he could convert the Mediterranean shores

into a unified empire under a single ruler much more effectively

than he could unite and control the scattered and far-reaching

lands of the remote Orient.

What was to be his own position in this colossal world-state 705. Deifi-
of which he dreamed ? In such a matter Alexander's imagina- Alexander
tion was without bounds. He had dreamed of having Mt. Athos cai^necisslty
carved into a vast statue of himself, with a town of ten thousand
people in his right hand ! And now he planned divinity for
himself. The will of a god, in so far as a Greek might believe
in him at all, was still a thing to which he bowed without ques-
tion and with no feeling that he was being subjected to tyranny.
Alexander found in this attitude of th6 Greek mind the solution
of the question of his own position. Many a great Greek had
come to be recognized as a god, and there was in Greek belief
no sharp line dividing gods from men. He would have himself
lifted to the realm of the gods, where he might impose his will
upon the Greek cities without offense. This solution was the
more easy because it had for ages been customary to regard
the king as divine in Egypt, where he was a son of the Sun-
god, and the idea was a common one in the Orient.

In Egypt therefore, seven years before, he had deliberately 706. Alexan-
taken the time, while a still unconquered Persian army was s^wa— ?he°
awaiting him in Asia, to march with a small following far out desert shnne
into the Sahara Desert to the oasis shrine of Amon (§ 657 and

440

Ancient Times

Fig. 205). Here in the vast solitude Alexander entered the
holy place alone. No one knew what took place there; but
when he issued again he was greeted by the high priest of the
temple as the son of Zeus-Amon. Alexander took good care
that all Greece should hear of this remarkable occurrence, but

Fig. 205. Oasis of Siwa in the Sahara

In this oasis was the famous temple of the Egyptian god Amon (or
Ammon) (§ 657). Alexander marched hither from the coast, a distance
of some 200 miles, and thence back to the Nile at Memphis, some 350
miles (see map, p. 436). A modern caravan requires twenty-one days to
go from the Nile to this oasis. Such ^n oasis is a deep depression in
the desert plateau; the level of the plateau is seen at the tops of the
cliffs on the right. Its fertility is due to many springs and flowing wells

the Hellenes had to wait some years before they learned what
it all meant.

Four years later the young king found that this divinity
which he claimed lacked outward and visible manifestations.
There must go with it some outward observances which would
vividly suggest his character as a god to the minds of the world
which he ruled. He adopted oriental usages, among which was
the requirement that all who approached him on official occa-
sions should bow down to the earth and kiss his feet. He also

Alexander the Great 441

sent formal notification to all the Greek cities that the league
of which he had been head was dissolved, that he was hence-
forth to be officially numbered among the gods of each city,
and that as such he was to receive the State offerings which
each city presented.

Thus were introduced into Europe absolute monarchy and 708. Abso-
the divine right of kings. Indeed, through Alexander there was archy"rnd
transferred to Europe much of the spirit of that Orient which divine right

^ ^ of kings

had been repulsed at Marathon and Salamis. But these meas-
ures of Alexander were not the efforts of a weak mind to gratify
a vanity so drunk with power that it could be satisfied only
with superhuman honors. They were carefully devised political
measures dictated by State policy and systematically developed
step by step for years.

This superhuman station of the world-king Alexander was 709. Personal
gained at tragic cost to Alexander the Macedonian youth and sufferedTy^^
to the group of friends and followers about him (§ 6q^). Be- Alexander as

^ ^ ^ ^^J a result of his

neath the Persian robes of the State-god Alexander beat the deification

warm heart of a young Macedonian. He had lifted himself to tionai policy

an exalted and lonely eminence whither those devoted friends

who had followed him to the ends of the earth could follow

him no longer. Neither could they comprehend the necessity

for measures which thus strained or snapped entirely those

bonds of friendship which linked together comrades in arms.

And then there were the Persian intruders treated like the

equals of his personal friends (Plate VI, p. 468), or even placed

over them ! The tragic consequences of such a situation were

inevitable.

Early in those tremendous marches eastward, after Darius's 710. Exe-
death, Philotas, son of Parmenio, had learned of a conspiracy phikJtas,
against Alexander's life, but his bitterness and estrangement Par"ienio,
were such that he failed to report his guilty knowledge to the friends
king. The conspirators were all given a fair and legal trial, and
Alexander himself suffered the bitterness of . seeing a whole
group of his former friends and companions, including Philotas,

442

Ancient Times

condemned and executed in the presence of the army. The
trusted Parmenio, father of Philotas, still guarding the Persian
treasure at Ecbatana, was also implicated, and a messenger
was sent back with orders for the old general's immediate exe-
cution. This was but the beginning of the ordeal through which

Fig. 206. Temple beside the Royal Palace at Babylon
WHERE Alexander presented Daily Offerings

The German excavations at Babylon (Fig. 11 1) have found the ruins of
a temple at the door of the great palace (plan, p. 165), and the director
of the work, Professor Koldewey, has drawn the above restoration. The
ancient accounts tell us that Alexander was wont to sacrifice every day
at this temple on an altar, seen here before the door. He was restoring
the ruined buildings of Babylon, especially the fallen temple tower, when
he died. Koldewey found vast masses of earth which Alexander moved

the man Alexander was to pass, in order that the world-king
Alexander might mount the throne of a god.

Clitus also, who had saved his life at the Granicus, was filled
with grief and indignation at Alexander's political course. At
a royal feast, where these matters came up in conversation,
Clitus was guilty of unguarded criticisms of his lord and then,
entirely losing his self-mastery, he finally, heaped such unbridled

Alexander the Great 443

reproaches upon the king that Alexander, rising in uncontrol-
lable rage, seized a spear from a guard and thrust it through
the bosom of the man to whom he owed his life. As we see
the young king thereupon sitting for three days in his tent,
speechless with grief and remorse, refusing all food, and pre-
vented only by his officers from taking his own life, we gather
some slight impression of the terrible personal cost of Alex-
ander's state policy.

Similarly the demand that all should prostrate themselves 712. Exe-

,,.,.. ... 1 • 1 r • 1 cution of

and kiss his feet on entering his presence cost him the iriend- callisthenes
ship of the historian Callisthenes. For, not long afterward, this
friend was likewise found criminally guilty toward the king in
connection with a conspiracy of the noble Macedonian pages
who served Alexander, and he was put to death. He was a
nephew of the king's old teacher, Aristotle, and thus the friend-
ship between master and royal pupil was transformed into
bitter enmity.

On his return to Babylon (Fig. 206), Alexander was over- 713. Death
come with grief at the loss of his dearest friend Hephaestion, (323 b.c.)
who had just died. He arranged for his dead friend one of
the most magnificent funerals ever celebrated. Then, as he was
preparing for a campaign to subjugate the Arabian peninsula
and leave him free to carry out his great plans for the conquest
of the western Mediterranean, Alexander himself fell sick, prob-
ably as the result of a drunken debauch, and after a few days
he died (323 B.C.). He was thirty-three years of age and had
reigned thirteen years.

QUESTIONS

Section 63. What was the policy of Philip of Macedon ? What
new developments in the art of warfare did he introduce? What did
the Athenians think about his plans.? Who were the two party
leaders.? What can you say of Demosthenes? What was the out-
come of Philip's struggle with the Greeks? Who succeeded Philip?
How was Philip's successor educated?

444

Ancient Times

Section 64. Discuss Alexander's relations with the Greeks.
What was the outcome of their rebellion against him? As whose
champion did he contrive to make himself appear ? Describe his con-
quest of Asia Minor. Where and when did he meet the main Persian
army? What was the result? What proposal did the Persian king
make? What advice did Alexander receive? What did he do?
What conflict arose? How did he dispose of the Phoenician fleet?

Where did Alexander go after conquering Egypt? Describe his
next encounter with the Persians. What happened to Darius III?
What had thus become of Egypt and Western Asia? To what great
cities of the Persian Empire did Alexander then go ? What happened
there ? Describe the remote marches which he now undertook. Can
you trace them on the map ? What was the result of these marches ?

Section 6$. What scientific enterprises did Alexander under-
take? Discuss his plans for merging Greek and Asiatic civilization.
What further great plans of conquest did he have ? What was to be
his own position in the new empire ? How had he prepared for this
position while he was in Egypt? How did he require his new
position to be recognized ? What effect had all this upon his friends ?
What happened to Parmenio? to Clitus? to Callisthenes ? Where,
when, and how did Alexander die?

Note. The sketch below shows us the lion erected by the Thebans on the
battlefield of Chaeronea in memory of their fallen citizens. Excavation has dis-
closed bodies and remains of the great funeral fire.

*^ « o «

Ills.

S ^3 8

PART IV. THE MEDITERRANEAN

WORLD IN THE HELLENISTIC AGE

AND THE ROMAN REPUBLIC

CHAPTER XX

THE HEIRS OF ALEXANDER

Section 66. The Heirs of Alexander's Empire

Alexander has been well termed " the Great." Few men of
genius, and certainly none in so brief a career, have left so in-
delible a mark upon the course of human affairs. By his remark-
able conquests, he gained for the Greeks that /^/zV/^-^;/ supremacy,
which their dvilization^ as we have seen, had long before attained.

Note. The headpiece above shows a view of modem Antioch in Syria. The
great decisive battle among the generals of Alexander the Great at Ipsus in
Phrygia in central Asia Minor (301 B.C.) made Seleucus lord of Asia (§ 718),
He then founded this city of Antioch named after his father, Antiochus (§ 718).
It finally became a great commercial center (§ 718), a magnificent city of several
hundred thousand inhabitants. Many appalling earthquakes have destroyed the
ancient city, and the modem town shown above has less than thirty thousand
inhabitants.

445

714. Conse-
quences of
Alexander's
death

44^ Ancient Times

His death in the midst of his colossal designs was a fearful
calamity, for it made impossible forever the unification of Hellas
and of the world by the power of that gifted race which was now
. civilizing the world. Of his line there remained in Macedonia a
demented half brother and, erelong, Alexander II, the son of
Roxana, bom in Asia after Alexander the Great's death. Con-
flicts among the leaders at home swept away all these members
of Alexander's family, even including his mother.

715. The sue- His generals in Babylonia found the plans for his great West-
Aie^der- ^^"^ campaign lying among his papers, but no man possessed
their three ^^ gcnius to Carry them out These able Macedonian com-

realms in ° -'

Europe, Asia, manders were soon involved among themselves in a long and

and Africa

tremendous struggle, which slumbered only to break out anew.
The ablest of them was Alexander's great general, Antigonus,
who determined to gain control of all the great Macedonian's
vast empire. Then followed a generation of exhausting wars
by land and sea, involving the greatest battles thus far fought
by European armies. Antigonus jvas killed, and Alejcander's
empire fell into three rnain parts, in Europe, Asia, and Africa,
with one of his generals or one of their successors at the^head

'of each. In EuropCj Macedonia was in the hands of Antigonus,
grandson of Alexander's great commander of the same name.
He endeavored to maintain control of Greece; in Asia most
of the territory of the former Persian Empire was under the

"rule of^lexander's-^eneral, Seleucus ; while in AfricaT'Egypt
was held by Ptolemy, one of the cleverest of Alexander's
Macedonian leaders (see map I, p. 448).

716. The In Egypt, Ptolemy gradually made himself king, and became
Empir^of ^he founder of a dynasty or family of successive kings, whom
the Ptolemies ^g ^,^11 the Ptolemies. Ptolemy at once saw that he would be

constantly obliged to draw Greek mercenary troops from Greece.
With statesmanlike judgment he therefore built up a fleet which
gave him the mastery of the Mediterranean! He took up his
residence at the great harbor city of Alexandria, the city which
Alexander had founded in the western Nile Delta. As a result

The Heirs of Alexander 447

it became the greatest commercial port on the Mediterranean.
Indeed, for nearly a century (roughly the third century B.C.)
the eastern Mediterranean from Greece to Syria and from the
^gean to the Nile Delta was an Egyptian sea. As a barrier .
against their Asiatic rivals, the Ptolemies also took possession of
Palestine and southern Syria. Thus arose an Egyptian empire
in the eastern Mediterranean like that which we found nearly
a thousand years earlier in our voyage up the Nile as we visited
The~great~biiirdirigs of Thebes. Following the example of the
PHaraolTs~(Fig. '62), the Ptolemies reached out also into the Red
Sea with their fleets, and from the Indian Ocean to the Helles-
pont, from Sicily to Syria, the Egyptian fleets dotted the seas,
bringing great wealth into the treasury' of the ruler (map I, p. 448).

Although these new Hellenistic rulers of Egypt were Euro- 717. The
peans, they did not set up a Greek or European form of state. enSl mon-"
They regarded themselves as the successors of the .ancient p^^^j^P'^^
Pharaohs, and like them they ruled over the kingdom of the
Kile in absolute and unlimited power. To three Greek cities
on the Nile, one of which was Alexandria, they granted the
right to manage their own local affairs, like a city of Greece.
Otherwise there were no voting citizens among the people of
Egypt, and just as in ancient oriental days they had nothing
whatever to say about the government or the acts of the ruler.
The chief purpose of the ruler's government was to secure
from the country as large receipts for his treasury as possible^
in order that he might meet the expenses of his great war fleet
and his army of Greek mercenaries. For thousands of years
Egypt had been operating a great organization of local officials,
trained to cany on the business of assessing and collecting
taxes (Fig. 40), The Greek states possessed no such organiza-
tion, but the Ptolemies found it too useful to be interfered with.
The tiniest group of mud huts along the river was ruled and
controlled by such officials. Thus the Macedonians ruling on
the Nile were continuing an ancient oriental absolute monarchy.
The example of this ancient form of state, thus preserved, was

448

Ancient Times

of far-reaching influence throughout the Mediterranean world,
and finally displaced the democracies of the Greeks and Romans.

Although they were not as powerful as the Ptolemies, the
• Seleucids, as we call Seleucus and his descendants, were the
^3iief heirs of Alexander, for they held the larger part of his
empire, extending from the ^gean to the frontiers of India.
Its boundaries were not fixed, and its enormous extent made it
very difficult to govern and maintain. The fleet of the Ptole-
mies hampered the commercial development and prosperity of
the Seleucids, who therefore found it difficult to reach Greece
for trade, troops, or colonists. They gave special attention to
the region around the northeast comer of the Mediterranean
reaching to the Euphrates, and here the Seleucids endeavored
to develop another Macedonia. Their empire is often called
Syria^ after this region. Here on the lower Orontes, Seleucus
founded the great city which he called Antioch (after his father,
Antiochus). It finally enjoyed great prosperity and became the
commercial rival of Alexandria and the greatest seat of com-
merce in the northern Mediterranean (headpiece, p. 445).

In government the Seleucids adopted a very different plan

. from that of the Ptolemies. Seleucus was in hearty sympathy

with Alexander's plan of transplanting Greeks to Asia and thus

of mingling Greeks and Asiatics. He and his son Antiochus I

founded scores of new Greek cities^hrough Asia Minor, Syria,

"nflown the Two Rivers, in Persia, and far over on"tHe"^5orders

~ of India. These cities were given self-government on the old

Greek plan; that is, each city formed a little republic, with its

local affairs controlled by its own citizens. The great Seleucid

Empire was thickly dotted with these little free commumiles.

To be sure they were under the king, and each such free
city paid him tribute or taxes. The form which the royal
authority took was the one, so ancient in the Orient, which
Alexander had already adopted. The ruler was regarded as
a god to whom each community owed divine reverence and
hence obedience. This homage they paid without offense to

Sequence Map showing the Three Empires of Alexander's Suc-
cessors FROM THE Third Century b.c. to their Decline at tiiz
Cu:.:;:.j of the Romans afti::i z:o ];.c.

The Heirs of Alexander 449

their feelings as free citizens. Greek life, with all the noble
and beautiful things we have learned it possessed, took root
throughout Western Asia and was carried far into the heart
of the great continent (see map I, p. 448).

Compared with her two great rivals in Egypt and Asia, 721. The
Macedonia in Europe seemed small indeed. The tradition of Empire: re-
independence still cherished by the Greek states made the G°eek^stetes
Macedonian leadership of the Balkan-Greek peninsula a diffi- after Aiexan-

^ r 1 , <ier s death

cult undertaking. Fighting for their liberty after Alexander's

death, they had proved too weak to maintain themselves against

the Macedonian army; they were forced to submit, and the

dauntless Demosthenes (§ 684), whose surrender along with

other democratic leaders was demanded by the Macedonians,

took his own life (see map I, p. 448).

While the second Antigonus, grandson of Alexander's general, 722. Antig-
was struggling to establish himself as lord of Macedonia and strops the
the Greeks, he was suddenly confronted by a new danger from great Galhc^
the far North and West. From France eastward ta^the low^ becomes king
Danube, Europe was now occupied by a vast ^roup of Indo-
EuropearTFarbarians whom we call Celts, or Gauls. They had
penetrafed^into'^Italy after 400 B.C. (§ 813), and a century later
they were pushing far down into the Balkan Peninsula. By
2S^riB:c. they~l5roke through the northern mountains, and
having devastated Macedonia, they even invaded Greece and
reached the sacred oracle of the Greeks at Delphi. The bar-
barian torrent overflowed also into Asia Minor, where a body
of the invaders settled and gave their name to a region after-
wards called Galatia. Antigonus II completely defeated the
barbarians in Thrace and drove them out of Macedonia, o£
which he then became king (277 B.C.). This overwhelming
flood of northern barbarians deeply impressed the Greeks, and
left its mark even on the art of the age, as we shall see (§ 736).

After the repulse of the Gauls, Antigonus II took up the
problem of restoring his empire and establishing his power.
The Egyptian fleet held complete command of the ^gean and

450

Ancient Times

thwarted him in every effort to control Greece. As Antiochus
in Asia was suffering from the Egyptian fleet in the same way
(§ 718), the two rulers, Antigonus and Antiochus, formed an
alliance against Egypt. The energetic Antigonus built a war
fleet at vast expense. In a long naval war with the Ptolemies,
which went on at intervals for fifteen years, Antigonus twice
defeated the Egyptian fleet. As the lax descendants of the
earlier Ptolemies did not rebuild the Egyptian fleet, both
Macedonia and Asia profited by this freedom of the eastern
Mediterranean. But not long after these Macedonian naval
victories, trouble arose in Greece, which involved Macedonia in
another long war with the Greek states.

Section Gj , The Decline of Greece

Greece was no longer commercial leader of the Mediter-
ranean. The victories of Alexander the Great had opened the
vast Persian Empire to Greek commercial colonists, who poured
into all the favorable centers of trade. Not only did Greece
decline in population, but commercial prosperity and the leader-
ship in trade passed eastward, especially to Alexandria and
Antioch, and also to the enterprising people of Rhodes and
the merchants of Ephesus. As the Greek cities lost their
wealth they could no longer support fleets or mercenary
armies, and they soon became too feeble to protect themselves.

They naturally began to combine in alliances or federations
for mutual protection. Not long after 300 B.C. two such
leagues were already in existence, one on each side of the
Corinthian Gulf. On the south side of the gulf was the
Achaean League and on the north side that of the ^tolians.
Such a league was in some ways a kind of tiny United States.
The league had its general, elected each year and commanding
the combined army of all the cities ; it had also its other officials,
who attended to all matters of defense and to all relations with
foreign states outside the league. Each city, however, took care

and Athens

The Heirs of A lexander 451

of its own local affairs, like the levying- and collecting of taxes.
But the two leagues were mostly hostile to each other, and while
they were successful for a time in throwing off Macedonian
leadership, it was too late for a general federation of all the
Greek states, and a United States of the Greeks never existed.

One reason for this was that Sparta and Athens refused to 726. Sparta
join these leagues. The Achaeans endeavored to force Sparta
into their league, but the gifted Spartan king Cleomenes de-
feated them in one battle after another. His victories and his
reorganization of the State restored to Sparta some of her old-
time vigor. The Achaeans were obliged to call on Macedonia
for help, and in this way Cleomenes was defeated and the
Spartans were finally crushed. But the Achaean League was
thereafter subject to Macedonia and never enjoyed liberty
again. Henceforth the Macedonians were lords of all Greece
except the ^tolian League. Meantime, while keeping out of
the leagues, Athens preserved her self-government by securing
recognition of her neutrality and liberty by the great powers,
first by Egypt and later by Rome (§ 884 ). In spite of her
political feebleness, Athens was still the home of those high
and noble things in Greek civilization of which we have already
learned something and to the further study of which we
must now turn.

QUESTIONS

Section dd. What were the most important consequences of
Alexander's death? What survivors of his line were there.? What
did his generals do ? What was the result of a generation of fighting
among them ? Into what main divisions did Alexander's empire fall }
Who ruled these divisions ? What was the policy of the first Ptolemy?
What was the result? What was at first the extent of Ptolemaic
power? What kind of government did the Ptolemies establish in
Egypt ? Would you describe it as oriental or Greek ? Was it finan-
cially better organized than the Greek states ? In what respect ?

What was the extent of the Seleucid Empire at first ? How were
the Seleucids hampered in the Mediterranean ? To what region did

452

Ancient Times

they give special attention? What great city did they found there?
What kind of a government did the Seleucids establish ? What can
you say of their Greek cities? Were such cities after all as free
as Athens had once been? WKat form did the authority of the
Seleucids take?

What was the first serious obstacle in the way of Macedonian
leadership of the Balkan-Greek peninsula? What did Antigonus II
accomplish by land? by sea? What was the extent of the Macedo-
nian Empire (see map I, p. 448)?

Section 67. What were now the leading commercial cities of the
Mediterranean ? In what direction had commercial leadership shifted?
What was the reason ? What did the Greeks do ? What happened
to Greece commercially? politically? Did a federation of all the
Greeks arise?

Note. The tailpiece below (on the right) is a pleasing example of the Alex-
andrian art of mosaic — the art of putting together brightly colored bits of glass
or stone and forming figures or designs with them, as a child puts together a
puzzle picture. It was an old Egyptian art, which was carried much further by
the Greeks at Alexandria, where they seem to have learned it, and used it in
making beautiful pavements (§ 738). They even copied many old Egyptian
designs, such as this cat (seen below, at right), which was taken from an old
Egyptian painting (seen below, at left) showing a cat with a bird in her mouth
and also two more under her forepaws and hindpaws. The greatest example
of mosaic is the copy of the painting of the battle of Issus (Fig. 202).

-^Ni^^MH

CHAPTER XXI

the civilization of the hellenistic age

Section 68. Cities, Architecture, and Art

The three centuries following the death of Alexander we call 727. The
the Hellenistic Age, meaning the period in which Greek civili- Age— su-
zation spread throughout the ancient world, especially the Orient, t^e^Te^k^
and was itself much modified by the culture of the Orient, language
Alexander's conquests placed Asia and Egypt in the hands of
Macedonian rulers who were in civilization essentially Greek.
Their language was the Greek spoken in Attica. The Orientals
found the affairs of government carried on in the Greek lan-
guage (Fig. 207); they transacted business with multitudes of
Greek merchants; they found many Greek books, attracting
them to read. Attic Greek became the tongue of which every
man of education must be master. Thus the strong Jewish com-
munity living at Alexandria now found it necessary to translate

Note. The above headpiece shows us the old palm-tree capital (on the left),
with which we are familiar on the Nile (Fig. 56). The Egyptians were the first
to take the patterns of their decorative art from the forms of plant life. Their
example has influenced decorative art ever since. • Thus this palm-tree column (on
the right) was borrowed from Egypt by the Hellenistic architects of Pergamum.
Such an example shows clearly that the idea of taking decorative architectural
forms from the vegetable world was acquired by the Greeks from abroad, and the
Corinthian column (Fig. 193) was doubtless suggested in the same way.

453

454

Ancient Times

the books of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek, in
order that their educated men might read them. While the
country people of the East might learn it imperfectly, Attic

Fig. 207. The Rosetta Stone, bearing the Same Inscription
IN Greek (C) and Egyptian {A and ^)*

Greek became, nevertheless, the daily language of the great
cities and of an enormous world stretching from Sicily (Fig. 257)
and southern Italy eastward on both sides of the Mediterranean
and thence far into the Orient.

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 455

Civilized life in the cities was attended with more comfort and 728. im-
better equipped than ever before. The citizen's house, if he were Soules and
in easy circumstances, might be built of stone masonry. The jJJxu^^^^
old central court was now often surrounded on all four sides
by a pleasing colonnaded porch (Fig. 208). Most of the rooms
were still small and bare, but the large living room, lighted
from the court, might be floored with a bright mosaic pavement
(tailpiece, p. 452), while the walls were plastered and adorned
with decorative paintings, or even veneered with marble if the
owner's wealth permitted. The furniture was more elaborate
and artistic; there might be carpets and hangings; and the
house now for the first time possessed its own water supply.

* This famous inscription is in two languages. It was written in Greek
because the language of the government was Greek and also because
there were so many Greek-speaking people in Egypt (§ 727). At the
same time, as the stone was to be a public record, it was necessary that
it should be read by Egyptians, who knew no Greek, just as in some
New England factory towns notices are now put up in both English and
Italian. The document was therefore first written out with pen and ink,
just as we would do it, in ordinary Egyptian handwriting, called by the
Egyptians demotic (see Fig. 31 for explanation). This demotic copy was
then cut on the stone where it occupies the middle (B). The priests
also wrote out the document in the ancient sacred hieroglyphics, and
they put this hieroglyphic form in the place of honor at the top of the
stone [A), where the two corners have since been broken off and lost.
Both of these two forms, then, are Egyptian — the upper {A) correspond-
ing to our print, the lower {B) corresponding to our handwriting. The
Greek translation of the Egyptian we see at the bottom (C). The stone
was intended as a public record of certain honors which the Egyptian
priests were extending to the Greek king, one of the Ptolemies, in
195 B.C. After it fell down and was broken, the stone had been buried
in rubbish for many centuries, when the soldiers of Napoleon accident-
ally found it while digging trenches near the Rosetta mouth of the
Nile in 1799. Hence it is called the Rosetta Stone. It was afterward
captured by the British and is now in the British Museum. After
Champollion had learned the signs in the names of Cleopatra, Ptolemy,
and some others (Fig. 76), he was finally able to read also the hiero-
glyphic form of this Rosetta document [A], because the Greek trans-
lation told him what the hieroglyphic form meant. It was in this way
that the Rosetta Stone became the key by which Egyptian hieroglyphic
was deciphered. The stone is a thick slab of black basalt, 2 feet 4^ inches
wide and 3 feet 9 inches high.

456

Ancient Times

The streets also were equipped with drainage channels or pipes,
a thing unknown in the days of Pericles.

The daily life of the time has been revealed to us, as it went on
in Egypt, in a vast quantity of surviving household documents.

Fig. 208. Plan of a House of a Wealthy
Hellenistic Age

Greek in the

The rooms are arranged around a central court {M) which is open to the
sky. A roofed porch with columns (called a peristyle) surrounds the
court (cf. Fig. 56). The main entrance is at A^ with the room of the door-
keeper on the right {A). At the corner is a shop {B). C, D, and E are
for storage and housekeeping. /^ is a back-door entry through which
suppHes were delivered ; it contained a stairway to the second floor.
G was used as a small living room. It had a built-in divan, and the
entire side toward the peristyle was open. The finest room in the house
was H, measuring about 16 by 26 feet, with a mosaic floor (tailpiece,
p. 452), in seven colors, and richly decorated walls. It was lighted by a
large door and two windows. A' was a little sleeping room, with a large
marble bath tub ; otherwise the sleeping rooms were all on the second
floor, which cannot now be reconstructed, /was a second tiny shop.
This house was excavated by the French on the island of Delos

Among the common people ordinary receipts and other busi-
ness memoranda were scribbled with ink on bits of broken
pottery (Fig. 209), which cost nothing. For more important
documents, however, a piece of papyrus paper was used
(Fig. 253). Such papers accumulated in the house, just as our

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 457

old letters and papers do. In the rainless climate of Egypt
they have survived in great numbers in the rubbish heaps now
covering the remains of
the houses of this age
(§ 158 and Fig. 211).
We can read a father's
or a mother's invitation
to the wedding of a
daughter; the letter of
a father to a worthy son
absent at school; the
repentant confessions of
a wayward son who has
run away from home;
the assurances of sym-
pathy from a friend
when a family has lost a
son, a father, a mother,
or a brother. Indeed,
these documents disclose
to us the daily intercourse
between friends and rela-
tives, just as such matters
are revealed by letters
which pass between our-
selves at the present
day. Such word-pictures,
thoughtlessly penned by
long-vanished fingers,
make the distant life of
this far-off age seem
surprisingly near and
real (Figs. 210 and 253).

The numerous new cities which this great Hellenistic Age
brought forth were laid out on a very systematic plan, with the

Fig. 209. Potsherd Document from
THE Ruins of an Egyptian Town

Thousands of personal documents of the
Hellenistic Age have survived in Egypt,
written with pen and ink on fragments
of broken pottery, which cost nothing
(§ 729)- This specimen records a receipt
for land rent and closes thus : " Eumelos,
the son of Hermulos, being asked to do
so, wrote for him, because he himself
writes too slowly." The giver of the
receipt probably could not write at all
and, to avoid this humiliating confession,
says that he wrote " too slowly " ! The hand
which Eumelos wrote for him is the rapid-
running business hand written by the
Greeks of this age, very different from
the capital letters which the Greek pottery
painters made five centuries earlier (head-
piece, p. 282). A modern college student,
even though very familiar with printed
Greek, would be unable to read it

458

Ancient Times

streets at right angles and the buildings in rectangular blocks
(Pig. 2 1 2). Recent excavation has uncovered as many as eleven
metal water pipes side by side crossing a street under the pave-
ment. But there never was any system of public-street lighting
in the ancient world.^ In the public buildings also a great change
had taken place. In Pericles' time the great state buildings were
the temples (§ 573).^ But now the architects of the Hellenistic
Age began to design large and splendid buildings to house the
offices of the government.

These fine public buildings occupied the center of the city
where in early Greek and oriental cities the castle of the king

Fig. 210. A Papyrus Letter rolled up and sealed for
Delivery

Large numbers of such letters have been found in the rubbish of the

ancient towns of Egypt (Fig. 253). Their appearance when unrolled

may be seen in Fig. 253, and the remarkable glimpses into ancient life

which they afford are well illustrated by the same letter

had once stood. Near by was the spacious market square, sur-
rounded by long colonnades ; for the Greeks were now making
large use of this airy and beautiful form of architecture con-
tributed by Egypt. Here much private business of the citizens
was transacted. There was, furthermore, a handsome building
containing an audience room with seats arranged like a theater.
The Assembly no longer met in the open air (Fig. 179), but
held its sessions here, as did the Council also. The architects
had also to provide gymnasiums and baths, a race track, and
a theater. Even a small city of only four thousand people, like
Priene in Asia Minor, possessed all these buildings (Fig. 212),
besides several temples, one of which was erected by Alexander
himself. It is very instructive to compare such a little Hellenistic
city as Priene with a modem town of four thousand inhabitants

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 459

in America. Our modem houses are much more roomy and
comfortable, but our ordinary public buildings, like our court-
houses and town halls, make but a poor showing as com-
pared with those of little Priene over two thousand years ago.

Fig. 211, Ruins of the Ancient Town of Elephantine on
AN Island of the Same Name in the Nile

This island is at the foot of the First Cataract, 5 miles below Philae (Plate
V, p. 444). When the sun-dried-brick houses which we see here fell
down (§ 158), they covered the owner's household papers, which in the
rainless climate of Egypt have been remarkably well preserved (see
especially Fig. 131). Some of these houses are as old as the twenty-
seventh century B.C., and the oldest papyrus documents dug out here
are therefore as old as the Pyramid Age (Fig. 40). Others are much
later, like the Aramaic papers of the Hebrew colony (Fig. 131). Most
of the documents found here, however, are from the Hellenistic Age
or later, and are therefore in Greek, like the young soldier's letter
(Fig. 253), which was found at another place like this one, or the certifi-
cate shown in Fig. 267. Near here was Eratosthenes' well (§745)

On one side of the market there opened a building called 732. The

a basilica, lighted by roof windows, forming a clerestory and the arch

(Fig. 271), which the Hellenistic architects had seen in Egypt jrom^the'^'^

(Fig. 68). At the same time they had become acquainted with Orient
the arch in Asia Minor, whither it had passed from the Fertile

Oh ^

o w
0^.

on pq
W ^

H
O

460

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 461

Crescent (Figs. 82 and 206). They began occasionally to intro-
duce arches into their buildings (Fig. 224), although we recall
that Greek buildings had never before employed the arch.
Thus the Orient, which had contributed the colonnade to Greek
architecture (Fig. 167), now furnished two more great forms,
the clerestory and the arch, but the Greeks never made great
use of the arch.

If a litde provincial Greek city like Priene possessed such 733. Alex-
splendid public buildings, an imperial capital and vast commercial commerce
city like Alexandria was correspondingly more magnificent. In ^"hthcmse
numbers, wealth, commerce, power, and in all the arts of civili-
zation, it was now the greatest city of the whole ancient world.
Along the harbors stretched extensive docks, where ships which
had braved the Atlantic storms along the coasts of Spain and
Africa moored beside oriental craft which had penetrated the

* This little city when excavated proved to be almost a second Pompeii
(Fig. 255), only older. Above A., on the top of the cliff, was the citadel
with a path leading up \.o \t {B). C shows the masonry flume which
brought the mountain water down into the town. Entering the town one
passed through the gate at K, and up a straight street to the little pro-
vision-market square (Z). Just above the market was the temple of
Athena (7), built by Alexander himself. Then one entered the spacious
business market {agora) {M), surrounded by fine colonnades, with shops
behind them, except on one side (under JV) where there was a stately
hall for business and festive occasions, like the basilica halls which were
coming in at this time among the Greeks (Fig. 271, 3). Beyond (at N')
were the offices of the city government, the hall in which the Council
and Assembly met, and the theater {£). At G was the temple of Isis
(§ 657), and in the foreground were the gymnasium (P) and the sta-
dium {Q). The wash-room here still contains the marble basins and the
lion-headed spouts from which the water flowed. An attached open hall
was used for school instruction and lectures (Fig. 224). Above the seats
of the stadium (Q) was a beautiful colonnade 600 feet long, for pleasure-
strolling between the athletic events, to enjoy the grand view of the sea
upon which the audience looked down. The houses fronting directly on
the street were mostly like the one in Fig. 208 ; but the finer ones
in the region of the theater {£) and the temple of Athena (/) were of
well-joined stone masonry and had no shops in front. Around the
whole city was a strong wall of masonry, with a gate at east {H) and
west {A'), while along the street outside these gates were the tombs of
the ancestors as at Athens (headpiece, p. 425).

462 Ancient Times

gates of the Indian Ocean (§ 104) and gathered the wares of
the vast oriental worid beyond. Side by side on these docks
lay bars of tin from the British Isles with bolts of silk from

Fig. 213. The Lighthouse of the Harbor of Alexandria
IN THE Hellenistic Age. (After Thiersch)

The harbor of Alexandria (see corner map, p. 436) was protected by
an island called Pharos, which was connected with the city by a cause-
way of stone. On the island, and bearing its name (Pharos), was built
(after 300 B.C.) a vast stone lighthouse, some 370 feet high (that is, over
thirty stories, like those of a modern skyscraper). It shows how vast
was the commerce and wealth of Alexandria only a generation after it
was founded by Alexander the Great, when it became the New York or
Liverpool of the ancient world, the greatest port on the Mediterranean
(§ 733)- The Pharos tower, the first of its kind, was influenced in design
by oriental architecture, and in its turn it furnished the model for the
earliest church spires, and also for the minarets of the Mohammedan
mosques (Fig. 272). It stood for about sixteen hundred years, the
greatest lighthouse in the world, and did not fall until 1326 a.d.

China and rolls of cotton goods from India. The growing com-
merce of the city even required the establishment of government
banks. From far across the sea the mariners approaching at
night could catch the gleaming of a lofty beacon shining from

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 463

a gigantic lighthouse tower (Fig. 213) which marked the
entrance of the harbor of Alexandria. This wonderful tower,
the tallest building ever erected by a Hellenistic engineer, was
a descendant of the old Babylonian temple tower (tailpiece,
p. 170), with which it was closely related (Fig. 272).

From the deck of a great merchant ship of over four thou- 734. Palace
sand tons the incoming traveler might look cityward beyond ptolemies;
the lighthouse and behold the great war fleet of the Ptolemies g-jf "f such
(§ 716) outlined against the green masses of the magnificent P^rks
royal gardens. Here, embowered in rich tropical verdure, rose
the marble residence of the Ptolemies, occupying a point of
land which extended out into the sea and formed the east side
of the harbor (see map, p. 436). From the royal parks of the
Persian kings and the villa gardens of the Egyptians (Fig. 51)
the Hellenistic rulers and their architects had learned to appre-
ciate the beauty of parks and gardens artistically laid out and
adorned with tropical trees, lakes, fountains, and sculptured mon-
uments. Thus the art of landscape gardening, combined with a
systematically planned city, — an art long familiar to the archi-
tects of the Orient, — was also being cultivated by Europeans.

At the other end of the park from the palace were grouped
the marble buildings of the Royal Museum, with its great 735. The
library, lecture halls, exhibition rooms, courts and porticoes, Ei^sofAlex-
and living rooms for the philosophers and men of science who ^"^^"^
resided in the institution. In the vicinity was the vast temple of
Serapis, the new State god (§ 764), and further in the city were
the magnificent public buildings, such as gymnasiums, baths, sta-
diums, assembly hall, concert hall, market places, and basilicas,
all surrounded by the residence quarters of the citizens. Unfor-
tunately, not one of these splendid buildings still stands. Even
the scanty ruins which survive cannot be recovered, because in
most cases the modern city of Alexandria is built over them.

We are more fortunate in the case of Pergamum (map II, 736. Per-
p. 448), another splendid city of this age which grew up g wonderful
under Athenian influences (Fig. 214). One of the kings of sculpture

464

Ancient Times

Pergamum defeated and beat off the hordes of Gauls coming
in from Europe (§ 722). This achievement greatly affected the
art which Attic sculptors, supported by the kings of Pergamum,
were creating there. They wrought heroic marble figures of

Fig. 214. Restoration of the Public Buildings of Pergamum,
A Hellenistic City of Asia Minor. (After Thiersch)

Pergamum, on the west coast of Asia Minor (see map II, p. 448) became
a flourishing city-kingdom in the third century B.C. under the successors
of Alexander the Great (§ 736). The dwelHngs of the citizens were all
lower down, in front of the group of buildings shown here. These public
buildings stand on three terraces — lower, middle, and upper. The
large lozver terrace {A) was the main market place, adorned with a vast
square marble altar of Zeus, having colonnades on three sides, beneath
which was a long sculptured band (frieze) of warring gods and giants
(Fig. 217). On the middle terrace (^), behind the colonnades, was the
famous library of Pergamum, where the stone bases of library shelves
still survive. The tipper terrace ( C) once contained the palace of the
king; the temple now there was built by the Roman Emperor Trajan
in the second century a.d.

the Northern barbarians in the tragic moment of death in battle
with a dramatic impressiveness which has never been surpassed
(Figs. 215 and 2 1 6). Reminiscences of this same struggle with
the Gauls were also suggested by an enormous band of relief
sculpture depicting the mythical battle between the gods and the

Fig. 215. A Gallic Chieftain in Defeat slaying his Wife
AND Himself

With one hand he supports his dying wife, and casting a terrible glance
at the pursuing enemy, he plunges his sword into his own breast. The
tremendous power of the barbarian's muscular figure is in startling con-
trast with the helpless limbs of the woman. The beholder feels both
terror at the wild impetuosity of the Northern barbarian, and at the
same time involuntary sympathy with his unconquerable courage, which
prefers death, for himself and his loved one, to shameful captivity
among the victors (§ 736)

Figs. 216 and 217. Sculptures of Hellenistic Pergamum

Above (Fig. 216) is a Gallic trumpeter, as he sinks in death with his
trumpet at his feet (§ 736). Below (Fig. 217) is a part of the frieze
around the great altar of Zeus at Pergamum (Fig. 214). It pictures the
mythical struggle between gods and giants. A giant at the left, whose
limbs end in serpents, raises over his head a great stone to hurl it at
the goddess on the right (§ 736)

Fig. 2 1 8. The Death of Laocoon and his Two Soxs

This famous group was wrought some time in the first century B.C. by
Agesander of Rhodes and two other sculptors, perhaps his sons. It shows
the priest Laocoon sinking down upon the altar, by which he had been
ministering, in a last agonizing struggle with the deadly serpents which
enfold him and his two sons. It is one of the most marvelous representa-
tions of human suffering (§ 737) ever created by art, but it does not move
us with such sympathy as the death of the GalUc chieftain (Fig. 215).
We should place with these works (Figs. 215-218) the sarcophagus reliefs
of Alexander (Plate VI, p. 468) and the mosaic picture of the battle of
Issus (Fig. 202) as the supreme creations of ancient art

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 465

giants (Fig. 217). This vast work extended almost entirely
around a colossal altar (Fig. 214) erected by the kings of Per-
gamum in honor of Zeus, to adorn the market place of the city.

It was the works of the Athenian sculptors which had in-
spired compositions of such tragic and overwhelming power,
of such violent and thrill-
ing action, at Pergamum.
Some of these Athenian
works have survived.
They are best illustrated
by the reliefs on a wonder-
ful marble sarcophagus,
showing Alexander the
Great winning the battle
of Issus, and again en-
gaged ih a lion hunt
(Plate VI, p. 468). This
sculpture of vigorous ac-
tion in supremely tragic
moments was also very
beautifully followed out
by a group of eminent
sculptors on the island
of Rhodes, which was a
prosperous republic in the
Hellenistic Age (§ 724).
Most of their works have
perished, but those which
have survived are among
the most famous works of sculpture from the ancient world.
One of them depicts the Trojan priest Laocoon and his two
sons as they are crushed to death in the folds of two deadly
serpents (Fig. 218).

The great Greek painters of this age show the same tenden-
cies as does the sculpture. They loved to depict dramatic and

Fig. 220. Hellenistic Portrait
Head in Bronze

This magnificent head of an unknown
man, with wonderful representation
of the hair, was recovered from the
bottom of the sea. The eyes are in-
laid as in the old Egyptian bronze
head (Fig. 53). It is now in the
Museum of Athens

737. Athe-
nian sculp-
ture: the
Alexander
sarcophagus;
Rhodian
sculpture ;
Laocoon

738. Painting
and mosaic

466

Ancient Times

tragic incidents at the supreme moment. Their original works
have all perished, but copies of some of them have survived,
painted on the walls as interior decorations of fine houses or
wrought in mosaic as floor pavement. It is the art of mosaic
which has preserved to us the wonderful painting of Alexander
charging on the Persian king at Issus, by an unknown Alex-
andrian painter of the Hellenistic Age (Fig. 202).

Both the sculptors and painters of this age made wonderful
progress in portraiture, and their surviving works now begin to
furnish us a continuous stream of portraits which show us how
the great men of the age really looked (Fig. 220). Unfortu-
nately these portraits are all works of the sailptors in stone or
metal, either as statues and busts or as reliefs, especially on
medallions and coins ; the portraits executed by the painter
in colors on wooden tablets have all perished. Alexander's
favorite painter was Apelles. In one of his portraits of Alex-
ander, the horse which the king was riding was said to have
been painted with such lifelikeness that on one occasion a
passing horse trotted up to it and whinnied. Later examples
of this art of portrait painting have survived attached to
mummies in Egypt (Plate VIII, p. 654).

Section 69. Inventions and Science ; Libraries
AND Literature

740. Mechan- The keen and wide-awake intelligence of this wonderful age
an^prafticS was everywhere evident, but especially in the application of
inventions science to the work and needs of daily life. It was an age
of inventions, like our own. An up-to-date man would install an
automatic door opener for the doorkeeper of his house, and a
washing machine which delivered water and mineral soap as
needed. On his estate olive oil was produced by a press oper-
ating with screw pressure. Outside the temples the priests set
up automatic dispensers of holy water, while a water sprinkler
operating by water pressure reduced the danger of fire. The

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 467

application of levers, cranks, screws, and cogwheels to daily
work brought forth cable roads for use in lowering stone from
lofty quarries, or water wheels for drawing water on a large
scale. A similar endless-chain apparatus was used for quickly
raising heavy stone missiles to be discharged from huge missile-
hurling war machines, some of which even operated by air
pressure. As we go to see the "movies," so the people
crowded to the market place to view the automatic theater, in
which a clever mechanician presented an old Greek tragedy of
the Trojan War in five scenes, displaying shipbuilding, the
launch of the fleet, the voyage, with the dolphins playing in
the water about the vessels, and finally a storm at sea, with
thunder and lightning, amid which the Greek heroes promptly
went to the bottom. Housekeepers told stories of the simpler
days of their grandmothers, when there was no running water
in the house and they actually had to go out and fetch it a long
way from the nearest spring.

A public clock, either a shadow clock, such as the Egyptian 741. Time
had had in his house for Over a thousand years (Fig. 74), or a calendar
water clock of Greek invention (Fig. 221), stood in the market
place and furnished all the good townspeople with the hour of
the day. The Ptolemies or the priests under them attempted
to improve the calendar by the insertion every fourth year of a
leap year with an additional day, but the people could not be
roused out of the rut into which usage had fallen, and every-
where they continued to use the inconvenient moon month of
the Greeks. There was no system for the numbering of the
years anywhere except in Syria, where the Seleucids gave each
year a number reckoned from the beginning of their sway.

The most remarkable man of science of the time was prob- 742. Archi-
ably Archimedes. He lived in Syracuse, and one of his famous ^^^^^
feats was the arrangement of a series of pulleys and levers,
which so multiplied power that the king was able by turning a
light crank to move a large three-masted ship standing fully
loaded on the dock, and to launch it into the water. After

468

Ancient Times

witnessing such feats as this the people easily believed his
proud boast, " Give me a place to stand on and I will move the
earth." He devised such powerful and dangerous war machines
that he greatly aided in defending his native city from capture by

the Romans (§ 868).
But Archimedes was
far more than an
inventor of practical
appliances. He was
a scientific investiga-
tor of the first rank.
He was able to prove
to the king that one
of the monarch's gold
crowns was not of
pure metal, because
he had discovered the
principle of determin-
ing the proportion of
loss of weight when
an object is immersed
in water. He was
thus the discoverer
of what science now
calls specific gravity.
Besides his skill in
physics he was also
the greatest of an-
cient mathematicians
(§ 744).

Fig. 221. The Town Clock OF Athens
IN THE Hellenistic Age

This tower, commonly called the "Tower
of the Winds," now stands among modern
houses, but once looked out on the Athenian
market place (§ 564). The arches at the left
support part of an ancient channel which
supplied the water for the operation of a
water clock in the tower. Such clocks were
more or less like hourglasses, the flowing
water filling a given measure in a given time,
like the sand in the hourglass. This tower
was built in the last century B.C., when Athens
was under the control of Rome (§ 884)

Archimedes was in close correspondence with his friends in
Alexandria, who formed the greatest body of scientists in the
ancient world. They lived together at the Museum, where they
were paid salaries and supported by the Ptolemies. They
formed the first scientific institution founded and supported by

n3 lU « «
'U 2 -^ rS

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 469

a government. Without financial anxieties they could devote
themselves to research, for which the halls, laboratories, and
library of the institution were equipped. Thus the scientists
of the Hellenistic Age, especially this remarkable group at
Alexandria, became the founders of systematic scientific re-
search, and their books formed the sum or body of scientific
knowledge for nearly two thousand years, until the revival of
science in modem times.

The very first generation of scientists at the Alexandrian 744. Mathe-
Museum boasted a great name in mathematics which is still Eudid and
famous among us — that of Euclid. His complete system of Astro™ m^^
geometry was so logically built up, that in modern England Aristarchus
Euclid's geometry is still used as a schoolbook — the oldest
schoolbook in use to-day. Archimedes then, for the first time,
developed what is now called higher mathematics — certain
difficult and advanced mathematical processes the knowledge
of which having in the meantime been lost had to be redis-
covered in modern times. Along with matherftatics much prog-
ress was also made in astronomy. The Ptolemies built an
astronomical observatory at Alexandria, and although it was, of
course, without telescopes, important observations and discov-
eries were made. An astronomer of little fame named Aristar-
chus, who lived on the island of Samos, made the greatest of
the discoveries of this age. He demonstrated that the earth
and the planets revolve around the sun. Almost no one adopted
his conclusion, however, and both the Hellenistic Greeks and all
ancient scientists of later days wrongly believed that the earth
was the center around which the sun and the planets revolved
(§1059). One Hellenistic astronomer at the cost of immense
labor, made a catalogue of eight or nine hundred fixed stars, to
serve as a basis for determining any future changes that might
take place in the skies.

Astronomy had now greatly aided in the progress of geog- 745- Era-
raphy. Eratosthenes, a great mathematical astronomer of Alex- computes
andria, very cleverly computed the size of the earth by observing the earth

47^ Ancient Times

%^.

Fig. 222. Diagram roughly indicating how the Size of
THE Earth was first calculated

The sun standing at noon directly over the First Cataract (Une AB) was
of course visible also at Alexandria. The result was just the same as if
someone had stood^at the First Cataract holding vertically upright a
surveyor's pole tall enough to be seen from Alexandria. For Eratosthenes
at Alexandria the sun was like the top of the pole. With his instruments
set up at Alexandria, therefore, Eratosthenes found that the sun over
the First Cataract (line AB) was 7^ degrees south of the zenith of his
instrument at Alexandria (line AC). The lines AB and AC diverge
7^ degrees at all points, whether in the skies or on earth. Hence Era-
tosthenes knew that the First Cataract was 7^ degrees of the earth's
circumference from Alexandria ; that is, the distance between Alexan-
dria and the First Cataract was 7^ degrees of the earth's circumferente,
or one fiftieth of its total circumference of 360 degrees. Now the actual
distance between Alexandria and the First Cataract was supposed to be
a little less than 500 miles. This distance (500 miles) then was one fiftieth
of the earth's circumference, giving a few hundred less than 25,000 miles
for the total circumference of the earth ; and for its diameter about
7850 miles, which is within 50 miles of being correct

that when the summer sun, shifting steadily northward, reached
its farthest north, it shone at noonday straight down to the
bottom of a well at the First Cataract of the Nile (Fig. 211).
To this notion of the size of the earth, much information had
been added regarding the extent and the character of the

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 47 1

inhabited regions reached by navigation and exploration in this 746. Explo-
age. At home, in Greece, one geographer undertook to meas- ward"
ure the heights of the mountains, though he was without a
barometer. The campaigns of Alexander in the Far East had
greatly extended the limits where the known world ended. Bold
Alexandrian merchants had sailed to India and around its south-
em tip to Ceylon and the eastern coast of India, where they
heard fabulous tales of the Chinese coast beyond.

In the Far West as early as 500 b.c. Phoenician navigators 747. Expio-
had passed Gibraltar, and turning southward had probably ward and
reached the coast of Guinea, whence they brought back mar- p^^ieasmi^
velous stories of the hairy men whom the interpreters called t^^e tides
"Gorillas"! A trained astronomer of Marseilles named Pytheas
fitted out a ship at his own expense and coasted northward
from Gibraltar. He discovered the triangular shape of the
island of Britannia, and penetrating far into the North Sea
he was the first civilized man to hear tales of the frozen
sea beyond and the mysterious island of Thule (Iceland) on
its margin. He discovered the influence of the full moon on
the immense spring tides, and he brought back reports of such
surprising things that he was generally regarded as a sensational
fable monger.

With a greater mass of facts and reports than anyone before 748. Era-
him had ever had, Eratosthenes was able to write a very full founder^of
geography. His map of the known world (p. 472), including ^^0"^^^^
Europe, Asia, and Africa, not only showed the regions grouped makes first

, - .,.. map with

about the Mediterranean with fair correctness, but he was the latitude and
first geographer who was able to lay out on his map a cross-net '°"Situde
of lines indicating latitude and longitude. He thus became the
founder of scientific geography.

In the study of animal and vegetable life Aristotle and his 749. Botany,
pupils remained'the leaders, and the ancient world never out- anatomy, and
grew their observations. While their knowledge of botany, ^^^i^^^e
acquired without a microscope, was of course limited and. con-
tained errors, a large mass of new facts was observed and

472

Ancient Times

arranged. For the study of anatomy there was a laboratory in
Alexandria, at the Museum, which the Ptolemies furnished with
condemned criminals on whom vivisection was practiced. In
this way the nerves were discovered to be the lines along which
messages of pain and pleasure pass to the brain. The brain
was thus shown to be the center of the nervous system.
Although such research came very near to discovering the cir-
culation of the blood, the arteries were still misunderstood to
be channels for the circulation of air from the lungs. Alexandria

Map of the World according to Eratosthenes (200 b.c.)

750. Earliest
state libraries
of the Greeks;
Alexandrian
library

became the greatest center of medical research in the ancient
world, and here young men went through long studies to train
themselves as physicians, just as they do at the present day.
• Notwithstanding the popularity of the natural sciences, there
was now also much study of language and of the great mass of
older literature. Although the ancient Orient had long before
known royal libraries (§ 226), the first library founded and sup-
ported by a Greek government had been formed by the city of
Heracleia, on the Black Sea, during the childhood of Alexander
the Great (not long before 350 b. c). Later the kings of Perga-
mum also founded a very notable library (Fig. 214). All these
efforts were far surpassed by the Ptolemies at Alexandria.

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 473

Across the park from their palace they built a library for the
Museum, where they had finally over half a million rolls.

The art of cataloguing and managing such a great collection 751. Rise of
of books had to be taken up from the beginning. A gifted ageSnTaU'd
philosopher and poet named Callimachus was made a librarian cataloguing
by the first Ptolemy. Callimachus catalogued all the known
books of value, both by titles and authors, and this first great
book catalogue filled one hundred and twenty books* or sec-
tions. As the founder of library management he introduced
many improvements. One of his sayings was, " A big book is
a big nuisance," by which he probably meant that a book in a
single long and bulky roll was very inconvenient to handle
(cf. Fig. 191). Hence he introduced the method of cutting up
a work into a series of rolls, each roll called a " book," mean-
ing a " part." Thus arose the division of the Homeric poems,
the history of Herodotus, and other works into " books."

The immense amount of hand copying required to secure 752. Great
good and accurate editions of famous works for this library the Alexan-
gradually created the new science of publishing correctly old o" editine'^
and often badly copied works. The copies produced by the andpublish-
librarians and scholars of Alexandria became the standard edi- copies)
tions on which other ancient libraries and copyists depended.
The Hellenistic world was everywhere supplied with " Alexan-
drian editions," and from these are descended most of the
manuscripts now preserved in the libraries of Europe, from
which, in turn, have been copied our printed editions of Homer,
Xenophon, and other great Greek authors. Unfortunately the
library of Alexandria perished (§ 965), and the earliest example
of a Greek book which has survived to us is a roll which was
found in an Egyptian tomb by modem excavators only a few
years ago (Fig. 223).

The new art of editing and arranging the text of books natu- 753. Lan-
rally required much language study. Where two old copies dif- ris?of^dic-^'
fered, the question would often arise, which one was correct, tionanesand

^ ' grammars

Many strange and old words needed explanation, just as when

474 Ancient Times

we read Chaucer, and there were constant questions of spell-
ing. The Alexandrian scholars therefore began to make diction-
aries. At the same time grammatical questions demanded m0re

.± ..KtAJ^Irt-.-NfANAK .-At-j'-vMP rMI-Atr r'<rrr-k ^,^Vr r.iK^T'c^

IT. TMM^i/^mv-nAi.v^'.'^'VMr r J^^^ ^^^

:rrAtrf3i-A-

k.AM^ •?<<■-?

Fig. 223. A Page from the Earliest Surviving Greek Book

This book was found lying beside the body of a man buried in an Egyp-
tian cemetery, and because of the rainless cHmate of Egypt it has been
preserved, in spite of its being written on perishable papyrus paper'
(cf. Figs. 58, 131, 253, and 267). What we have called z. page is really a
column of writing, and the book consisted of a series of such columns
side by side on the roll (see Fig, 191). This book contains a poem called
The Persians^ by the Greek poet Timotheos, who died 357 B.C. His
name (Timotheos) may be seen in the third line from the bottom, at
the beginning of the line. The poem tells the story of the battle of
Salamis. This copy of the work was written in the lifetime of Alexander
the Great. The column shown here is like those on the rolls which once-
filled the Alexandrian library, and shows us how the pages looked over
which the great men of science there so industriously pored (§ 753)

and more attention. At last in 120 B.C. a scholar named Diony--
sius wrote the first Greek grammar. It contained the leading,
grammatical terms, like the names of the parts of speech, which.

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 475

we still use. As all these terms were explained and conveniently
arranged in the grammar of Dionysius, his book was used for
centuries and thus became the foundation of all later grammars
of the languages of civilized peoples, including our own. Such a
term as our " subjunctive mode " is simply a translation of the
corresponding Greek term created by the Hellenistic scholars.

Literature was to a large extent in the hands of such learned 754. Litera-
men as those of Alexandria. The great librarian Callimachus
was a famous poet of the age. These scholars no longer chose
great and dramatic themes, like war, fate, and catastrophe, as
the subjects of their writing. They loved to picture such scenes
as the shepherd at the spring, listening to the music of over-
hanging boughs, lazily watching his flocks, and dreaming the
while of some winsome village maid who has scorned his devo-
tion. Such pictures of country life set in the simplicity and
beauty of peaceful hillsides, and wrought into melodious verse,
delighted the cultivated circles of a great world-city like Alexan-
dria more than even the revered classics of an older day. In
such verse the greatest literary artist of the age was a Sicilian
named Theocritus, whose idyls have taken a permanent place
in the world's literature for two thousand years. At the same
time the everyday life of the age was also pictured at the
theater in a modem form of play, known as the "new comedy."
With many amusing incidents the townsmen saw their faults
and weaknesses of character here depicted on the stage, and
Menander at Athens, the ablest of such play-writers, gained a
great reputation for his keen knowledge of men and his ability
to hit them off wittily in clever comedies.

Section 70. Education, Philosophy, and Religion

In such a cultivated world of fine cities, beautiful homes, 755. Educa-
sumptuous public buildings, noble works of art, state libraries Jl'J? schools""
and scientific research, it was natural that education should and gymna-

Slums

have made much progress. The elementary schools, once private.

476

Ancient Times

756. Influ-
ence of
gymnasium
toward
higher
studies

were now often supported by the State. When the lad had fin-
ished at the elementary school, his father allowed him to attend
lectures on rhetoric, science, philosophy, and mathematics in the
lecture rooms of the gymnasium building. The wall of such a

hall at Priene (Fig. 224)

is still scribbled all over
with the names of the
boys of more than two
thousand years ago, who
thus recorded their per-
manent claims to certain
seats near the wall.

The gymnasium thus
became a. place of help-
ful intellectual stimulus.
When the fathers were
no longer nimble enough
for athletic games they
often sat about in the
colonnades watching the
contests, or idling in
groups, discussing the
last lecture in science or
the latest discovery in
the laboratory of the
Museum. Here many an
argument in science or
philosophy might be
overheard by the young
fellows, fresh from the gymnasium baths, as they wandered
out to greet their waiting fathers and wend their way home-
ward. Such an atmosphere was one to create great interest
in science and philosophy, and often a youth besought his
father to give him a few years' higher study at the Museum
or at Athens.

Fig. 224. Wall of a Gymnasium
Lecture Hall at Priene, still

COVERED WITH SCHOOLBOYS' NaMES

This lecture hall opened on the colon-
nades around the court of the gymnasium
at Priene (Fig, 212,/'). The smooth blocks
of marble are scratched with the names of
hundreds of schoolboys, who heard lec-
tures and classes here twenty-two hun-
dred years ago. In order to set up a
permanent claim to his seat, a boy would
scratch into the wall the words, " Seat of
Cleon, the son of Clearchos." When the
wall was entirely filled with these names,
the boys evidently mounted on the benches
and then on the backs of comrades to
find enough room to write their claims

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 477

Furthermore, in the pursuit of a profession, a special training 757. Pro-

, . , , .J. ui ^ J T -1 fessional and

had now become mdispensable to a young man s success. Like scientific
the medical student, the architect now studied his profession and specialization
bent industriously over books that told him how to erect an
arch that would be safe and secure, and what were the proper
proportions for a column. Young fellows who wished to be-
come engineers studied a host of things in mechanics, like
bridge-building and devices for moving heavy bodies. It was
an age of technical training. This specialization in the profes-
sions was also to be found among the scientists, who now
specialized each in a particular branch, like astronomy, or mathe-
matics, or geography. The youth who wished to study science
turned to the great scientific specialists at the Alexandrian
Museum.

As he strolled for the first time through the beautiful gardens 758. The
and into the Museum building, he found going on there lectures Museum"s"a
on astronomy, geography, physics, mathematics, botany, zoology, university
anatomy, medicine, or rhetoric, grammar, and literature. When
he was sufficiently familiar with the know?i facts about these
subjects, he could share in the endeavor to discover new facts
about them. He might cross the court to the halls where the
cries of suffering animals told him that vivisection was going
on ; he might climb the tower of the astronomical observatory,
and sit there night after night at the elbow of some eminent
astronomer, or assist Eratosthenes at noonday in taking an ob-
servation of the sun for his computation of the earth's size
(§ 745). Or he might withdraw to the quiet library rooms and
assist in making up the lists of famous old books, to be put
together in Callimachus' great catalogue. If he showed ability
enough, he might later be permitted to lecture to students him-
self, and finally become one of its group of famous scientific men.

On the other hand, Alexandria was not at first interested in 759. The
philosophy, out of which science had grown (§ 494). Athens the^peripa"
was still the leading home of philosophy. The youth who went ^f ^thenr^
there to take up philosophical studies found the successors of

478

Ancient Times

760. Unri-
valed au-
thority of
Aristotle's
works

761. Two
philosophies
of practical
living : Sto-
icism and
Epicureanism

Plato Still continuing his teaching in the quiet grove of the
Academy (§ 671), where his memory was greatly revered.
Plato's pupil Aristotle, however, had not been able to accept
his master's teachings. After the education of the young Alex-
ander (§ 687), Aristotle had returned to Athens and established
a school of his own at the Lyceum (§ 558), where he occupied
a terrace called the "Walk" (Greek, peripatos). Here, he
directed one group of advanced students after another in the
arrangement and study of the different sciences, like anatomy,
botany, zoology. All of these groups collected great masses of
scientific observations, which were arranged under Aristotle's
guidance. The result was a veritable encyclopedia of old
and new facts. The work was never completed, and many
of the essays and treatises which it included have been lost.
When Aristotle died, soon after the death of Alexander, his
school declined.

Aristotle's works formed the greatest attempt ever made in
ancient times to collect and to state in a clear way the whole
mass of human knowledge. They never lost their importance
and they justly gave him the reputation of having possessed the
greatest mind produced by the ancient world. His works finally
gained such unquestioned authority in later Europe that in
medieval times men turned to Aristotle's books for the answer
to every scientific question. Instead of endeavoring to discover
new facts in nature for themselves, they turned to Aristotle
for the solution of every scientific problem^ The writings
of no other man have ever enjoyed such widespread and
unquestioned authority.^

But many Greeks found little satisfaction in the learned
researches of Plato's Academy and of Aristotle's Peripatetic
school (ivom peripatos y "walk"). They desired some teaching
which would lead them to a happy and contented frame of mind
in living, and enable one to live successfully. To meet this
growing desire two more schools of philosophy arose at AthenSw

1 See Robinson, Medieval and Modem Ttmes, pp. 252 ff.

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 479

The first was founded by an Oriental, a Semite named Zeno,
born in Cyprus. He taught in the famous old " Painted Porch "
in the market place of Athens (§ 572). Such a porch was
called a Stoa^ and Zeno's school was therefore called the Stoic
school. Zeno taught that there was but one good and that was
virtue, and but one evil and that was moral wrong. The great
aim of life should be a tranquillity of soul, which comes from
virtue, and is indifferent both to pleasure and to pain. His fol-
lowers were famous for their fortitude, and hence our common
use of the word "stoicism" to indicate indifference to suffering.
The Stoic school was very popular and finally became the great-
est of the schools of philosophy. The last school, founded by
Epicurus in his own garden at Athens, taught that the highest
good was pleasure, both of body and of mind, but always in
accordance with virtue. Hence we still call a man devoted
to pleasure, especially in eating, an " epicure." The school of
Epicurus, too, flourished and attracted many disciples. Men
later distorted his teachings into a justification for a life of sen-
sual pleasure. The oriental proverb, " Eat, drink, and be merry,
for to-morrow we die," has therefore been commonly applied
to them.

These schools lived on the income of property left them by 762. The
wealthy pupils and friends. The head of the school, with his ASienramT
assistants and followers, lived together in quarters with rooms jts historic
for lectures, books, and study. The most successful of these
organizations was that of Aristotle, at least as long as he lived.
The Museum of Alexandria was modeled on these Athenian or-
ganizations, and they have also become the model of academies ^
of science and of universities ever since. We may regard
Hellenistic Athens then as possessing a university made up
of four departments : the Academy, the Lyceum, the Stoa, and the
Garden of Epicurus. Thus in the day when her political power
had vanished, Athens had become even more than Pericles had
hoped she might be. She was not only the teacher of all Greece,
but she drew her pupils from, all parts of the civilized world.

48o

Ancient Times

763. The fall
of the old
Greek gods

764. In-
creased pop-
ularity of
oriental gods

For such highly educated men the beliefs of Stoicism or
Epicureanism served as their religion. The gods had for such
men usually ceased to exist, or were explained as merely glori-
fied human beings. A romance writer of the day, a man named
Euhemerus, wrote an attractive tale of an imaginary journey
which he made to the Indian Ocean, where he found a group
of mysterious islands. There, in a temple of Zeus, he found a
golden tablet inscribed with a story telling how the great gods
worshiped by the Greeks were once powerful kings who had
done much for the civilization of mankind, and when they died
they had been deified. This story of a novelist of the Hellenistic
Age was widely believed, but these gods no longer attracted the
reverence of religiously minded men. Moreover, there was now
little pressure on any man to keep silence about his beliefs
regarding the gods. There was great freedom of conscience
— far more freedom than the Christian rulers of later Europe
granted their subjects. The teachings of Socrates would no
longer have caused his condemnation by his Athenian neighbors.

The great multitude of the people had not the education
to understand philosophy, nor the means to attend the philo-
sophical schools. Yet gods in some form they must have.
With the weakening of faith in the old gods, those of the
Orient, which we have already seen invading Greek life
(§ 657), became more and more popular. So the Ptolemies
introduced as their great State god an oriental deity named
Serapis, and they built for him a magnificent temple at Alex-
andria. From Babylonia the mysterious lore of the Chaldean
astrologers (§§ 238, 239) was spreading widely through the
Mediterranean. It was received and accepted in Egypt, and
even Greek science did not escape its influence. Oriental be-
liefs and oriental symbols were everywhere. Men had long
since grown accustomed to foreign gods, and they no longer
looked askance at strange usages in religion. It was in such
an age as this that Christianity, an oriental religion, passed
easily from land to land (§ 1069),.

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 481

Section 71. Formation of a Hellenistic World of

Hellenic-Oriental Civilization ; Decline of

Citizenship and the City-State

It is a great mistake to suppose that Marathon and Salamis 765. Con-
once and for all banished the influence of the Orient from the trusion of
Mediterranean, as an impenetrable dam keeps back a body of flueJJceVin
water. While Alexander's victories and conquests destroyed the the eastern

Mediter-

military power of the Orient, the daily life and the civilization of ranean
the people of the Orient continued to be a permanent force exert-
ing a steady pressure upon the life of the eastern Mediterranean
world, in commerce, in form of government, in customs and
usages, in art, industry, literature, and religion. When Christi-
anity issued from Palestine, therefore, as we shall see (§ 1067),
it found itself but one among many other influences from
the Orient which were passing westward. Thus while Greek
civilization, with its language, its art, its literature, its theaters
and gymnasiums, was Hellenizing the Orient, the Orient in the
same way was exercising a powerful influence on the West
and was orientalizing the eastern Mediterranean world. In
this way there was gradually formed an eastern Mediterranean
world of Hellenic-oriental civilization. .

In this larger world the old Greek <^*/y-citizen, who had made 766." The
Greek civilization what it was, played but a small part. He felt world'of the
himself an individual belonging in an international world, a far P^^tem Med-

*^ *^ ' iterranean

larger world than the city "in which he lived. But this larger and its lack

world brought home no sense of citizenship in it. For in the

great Hellenistic states there was no such thing as national

citizenship. The city-citizen had no share in guiding the affairs

of the great nation or empire of which his city-state was a part

It was as if a citizen of Chicago might vote at the election of

a mayor of the city but had no right to vote at the election of

a president of the United States. There was not even a name

for the empire of the Seleucids, and their subjects, wherever

482

Ancient Times

7<5y. The con-
tributions of
the city-state
and the end
of its use-
fulness

768. Hellen-
istic world of
the eastern
Mediterra-
nean under
the power
of the west-
em Mediter-
ranean

they went, bore the names of their home cities or countries.^
The conception of "native land" in the national sense was
wanting, and patriotism did not exist.

The centers of power and progress in Greek civilization had
been the city-staUs^ but the finest and most influential forces
operating within the city-state had now disappeared. So, for
example, the old city gods were gone. Likewise the citizen-
soldier who defended his city had long ago given way, even
in Greece, to the professional soldier who came from abroad
and fought for hire. The Greek no longer stood weapon in
hand ready to defend his home and his city-community against
every assault. He found the holding of city offices becoming
a profession, as that of the soldier had long been. Losing
his interest in the State, he turned to his personal affairs,
the cultivation of himself. The patriotic sense of respon-
sibility for the welfare of the city-state which he loved, and
the fine moral earnestness which this responsibility roused,
no longer animated the Greek mind nor quickened it to the
loftiest achievements in politics, in art, in architecture, in liter-
ature, and in original thought. The Greek city-states, in com-
petition among themselves, had developed the highest type of
civilization which the world had ever seen, but in this process
the city-states themselves had politically perished. In many
Greek cities only a discouraged remnant of the citizens was
left after the emigration to Asia (§ 724). The cattle often
browsed on the grass in the public square before the town
hall in such cities of the Greeks. Not even their own Hellas
was a unified nation.

A larger world had engulfed the old Greek city-states. But
this Hellenistic world of the eastern Mediterranean had by
200 B.C. reached a point in its own wars and rivalries when
it was to feel the iron hand of a great new military power from
the distant world of the western Mediterranean. At this point,

1 It was as if the citizens of the United States were termed Bostonians, New
Yorkers, Philadelphians, Chicagoans, etc.

The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 483

therefore (200 B.C.), we shall be unable to understand the
further story of the eastern Mediterranean, until we have
turned back and taken up the career of the western Mediter-
ranean world. There in the West for some three centuries the
city of Rome had been developing a power which was to unite
both the East and the West into a vast empire including the
whole Mediterranean,

QUESTIONS

Section 68. What was the prevalent language of the Hellenistic
Age ? How is the Rosetta Stone an example of this fact .? Describe
the improvements in houses. What written documents tell us of this
age, and how have they been preserved.'* Describe the new Hellenistic
cities, especially Priene. What new forms of architecture came in ?
Describe the commerce of Alexandria ; its parks and public buildings.
Describe the important examples of the sculpture of tragic and
violent action. What can you say of such subjects in painting.?

Section 69. What can you say of inventions in the Hellenistic
Age? of improvements in time measurement.? of the achievements
of Archimedes.? Tell about the life of the Alexandrian scientists.
Which of them wrote a geometry that is still in use? What great
truth did Aristarchus discover? How did Eratosthenes compute the
size of the earth ? Describe the growth of geographical knowledge ;
the world map of Eratosthenes ; the study of animal life and medi-
cine. What can you say of the rise of libraries ? Who was the first
great librarian, and what did he do ? What effect had the libraries on
publishing ? on language study ? Discuss the changes in literature.

Section 70. Discuss the gymnasium as a source of education.
What professions could a boy study? How could he take up scien-
tific study and research? Where did a youth study philosophy?
What two philosophical schools first arose at Athens? What did
Aristotle do ? What can you say about his rank as a thinker ? Name
the two later schools of philosophy at Athens. What was their pur-
pose ? What had happened to the old gods ?

Section 71. What kind of a world had now grown up in the
eastern Mediterranean? What can you say of citizenship there?
Under what form of state had Greek civilization chiefly developed?
What had now become of the Greek city-state? What was now to
become of the Hellenistic eastern Mediterranean world ?

CHAPTER XXII

769. The

"Mediterra-
nean and its
shore lands
form the
main part
of the ancient
world

THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN WORLD AND THE
ROMAN CONQUEST OF ITALY

Section 'J2, The Western- Mediterranean World

While we have been following the history of the eastern
Mediterranean and the peoples grouped about it, the story of
its western shores has largely dropped out of sight. Before
we turn to this Western world, however, let us endeavor to
gain a picture of the Mediterranean world as a whole. This
sea is a very large body of water, almost as long as Europe

Note. The above headpiece shows an ancient bronze wolf (sixth century b. c),
wrought by Greek artists in Italy (§ 831), and illustrates the influence of Greek
civilization in Rome even before 500 B. c. The two infants nourished by the she-
wolf are later additions put there in accordance with the tradition at Rome that
the city was founded by these twin brothers named Romulus and Remus. Their
ancestor, so said the tradition, was ^neas (§ 1003), one of the Trojan heroes, who
had fled from Troy after its destruction (§ 375), and after many adventures had
arrived in Italy. His son founded and became king of Alba Tonga (§ 783). In the
midst of a family feud among his descendants, these twin boys, the sons of
the War-god, Mars, were bom, and after they had been set adrift in the Tiber by
the ruling king, they gently ran aground at the base of the Palatine Hill, where
a she-wolf found and nourished them. When they grew up they returned home
to Alba Tonga, claimed their rights, and eventually founded Rome. Similar
legends formed all that the Romans knew of their early history through the
period of the kings (see p. 497, footnote) and far down into the Republic

484

The Western Mediterranea^i World 485

itself. Its length is about twenty-four hundred miles, and laid
out across the United States, it would reach from New York
over into California. It is important for us to bear in mind
that the ancient world was largely made up of the lands sur-
rounding the Mediterranean. To these shore lands we have
chiefly to add the Black Sea and the oriental lands on the east.
The stage of ancient history was then, to a large extent, the
Mediterranean and its shores.

Now the Mediterranean is not a single compact body of 770. Division
water, like one of our Great Lakes. A land bridge made up terranean
of Italy and Sicily extends almost across this great sea and em°and?^^"
divides it into two parts, an eastern and a western basin, western basin
There are no accepted geographical names for these two
basins, but we may call them, for convenience, the eastern
and the western Mediterranean worlds. We have been follow-
ing the story of civilized men in the eastern Mediterranean
world ; we must now turn back and take up the story of the
western Mediterranean world also.

The story of civilization in the eastern Mediterranean world 771. Spread

began very early under the leadership of the Orient. On the from the ^^ja

other hand, the peoples of the western Mediterranean world were f^ Medi-
' ^ ^ terranean

too far away to receive from the Orient such strong influences world to the

toward civilization. Hence the West had lagged far behind, western Med-

and much of it had made little advance in civilization since the ^^^""^^"^^^

Stone Age life of the Swiss lake-villages. But a study of the

map (p. 288) shows us that the western Mediterranean world

is not wholly separated from the eastern, which, with its Greek

and Hellenistic civilization, overlapped at its western end with

the western Mediterranean world. Here then, in southern Italy

and Sicily, we shall see the eastern Mediterranean civilizing

the western.

The most important land in the western Mediterranean world 772. Italy :
in early times was Italy. It slopes westward in the main; it antfcUmate^
thus faces and belongs to the western Mediterranean world.
The Italian peninsula, thrusting far out into the sea (see map,

486 Ancient Times

p. 484), is nearly six hundred miles long; that is, about half
again as long as the peninsula of Florida. Italy ^ is not only
four times as large as Greece, but, unlike Greece, it is not cut
up by a tangle of mountains into tortuous valleys and tiny
plains. The main chain of the Apennines, though crossing
the peninsula obliquely in the north, is nearly parallel with the
coasts, and many of its outlying ridges are quite so. There are
larger plains for the cultivation of grain than we find anywhere
in Greece; at the same time there is much more room for
upland pasturage of flocks and herds. A considerably larger
population can be supported in the plains of Italy than in
Greece. At the same time the coast is not so cut up and in-<
dented as in Greece ; there are fewer good harbors. Hence
agriculture and live stock developed much earlier than trade.

773. Earliest The fertile plains and forest-clad slopes of Italy have always
into'Ttdy^ attracted the peoples of northern Europe to forsake their own

bleak and wintry lands and migrate to this warm and sunny
peninsula in the southern sea. By 2000 B.C. the lake-dwellers
of Late Stone Age Switzerland (§§ 27-34) pushed southward
through the Alpine passes and occupied the lakes of northern
Italy. The remains of over a hundred of their pile-supported
settlements (Fig. 225) have also been found under the soil of
the Po valley, once a vast morass, which these people reclaimed
by erecting their pile dwellings further and further out in it.
The city of Venice, still standing on piles, although it is built
mostly of stone, is a surviving example of the way the lake-
dwellers once built their little wooden houses on piles in the
same region. They had their influence on the later Romans,
who afterward made their military camps on a plan exactly
like that of the Po valley pile villages (Fig. 225).

774. Earliest When these people reached the Po valley, they had already
and^itsori?^ received metal, which is found in all their settlements. The
ental names oriental source of this metal is still evident in the names which

1 The area of Italy is about 110,000 square miles, about twice as large as
Illinois, and not quite four times the area of South Carolina.

The Western Mediterranean World

487

copper and bronze brought with them from the East into Italy.

Our word '* copper " had the form cuprum in Italy, from the

name of the island

of Cyprus (ancient

Cuprus) (see map,

p. 288), whose rich

mines supplied the

Mediterranean lands

with copper from very

early times. Our word

" bronze " is probably

derived from the first

part of the name of

the city of Brondesium

(later Brundisium, now

called Brindisi) at the

back of the heel of

Italy, where it was so

near the ^gean that

it very early received

bronze from there

(§ 336).

While the pile vil-
lagers were settling
in the Po valley, the
tribes forming the
western end of the
Indo-European migra-
tion (Fig. 112) began
to feel the attractive-
ness of the warm and
verdant hills of Italy.

Probably not long' after the Greeks had pushed southward into the
Greek peninsula (§ 371), the western tribes of Indo-European
blood had entered the beautiful western Mediterranean world,

Fig. 225. Ground Plan of a Prehis-
toric Pile Village in Northern Italy

The settlement was surrounded by a moat
{A) nearly 100 feet across, filled with water
from a connected river {C). Inside the moat
was an earth wall [B) about 50 feet thick
at the base. The village thus inclosed
was about 2000 feet long; that is, four city
blocks. The whole village, being in the
marshes of the Po valley, was supported
on piles, Hke the lake-villages (Fig. 15).
The plan and arrangement of streets are
those of the Roman military camp later
derived from it

775. West-
ern wing of
the Indo
Europeans
enters Italy

488

Ancient Times

776. Uncivi-
lized state
of I taly and
the West

777. The
three Western
rivals con-
fronting the
Italic tribes:
first, the
Etruscans

into which the Italian peninsula extends. They came in succes-
sive migrations, but the most important group who settled in
the central and southern parts of the peninsula were the Italic
tribes, the earliest Italians. Their name, first applied by the
Greeks to the South, was finally extended to the whole pen-
insula ; hence the name " Italy." Probably within a few cen-
turies they had also overflowed into Sicily.

We remember that the Greeks, in conquering the ^gean,
took possession of a highly civilized region on the borders of
the Orient. This was not the case with the Indo-lEuropean in-
vaders of Italy. They found the western Mediterranean world
still without civilization. It had no architecture, no fine build-
ings, no fortified cities, only the rudest arts and industries, no
writing, and no literature. As the Italic tribes fought their way
into the country the earlier dwellers in Italy must have taken to
flight before them, as the ^geans fled before the on-coming
Greeks. Pictures of these early Westerners, the descendants of
Stone Age Europe, are preserved on the Egyptian monuments
of the thirteenth century b. c. They took service in the Egyptian
army and were perhaps the very fugitives who were driven out
before the Italic invasion of the West. Their weapons were
huge bronze swords, which were simply enlarged Egyptian dag-
gers (see tailpiece, p. 519) such as they had long imported.
Thus these prehistoric Westerners had enough skill in working
metals to invent the sword,^ which Europe still continues to use.

Besides the Italic invaders there were in the western Mediter-
ranean world three rival peoples, all of whom came from the
eastern Mediterranean world. While fighting among themselves,
the Italic peoples suddenly saw landing on the western coast
of Italy a bold race of sea rovers whom we call the Etrus-
cans. They were a people whose origin is still uncertain ; they
probably had an earlier home in western Asia Minor, and the

1 A curved blade, of one edge only, was known in the Egyptian Empire and
also in the Assyrian Empire, but it was little used and never became one of the
recognized arms of an oriental army. The /w<?-edged sword, the descendant of the
dagger, as used by the Roman army, was of Western origin.

The Western Mediterranean World

489

Egyptian monuments tell us of their sea raids on the coast of
-the Delta as far back as the thirteenth century B.C., at a time
when they were perhaps leaving Asia Minor in search of a
new home in Italy. In any case the Etruscans were settled
in Italy by 1000 B.C. They thrust back the Indo-European
tribes, and finally gained control of the west coast of Italy
from the Bay of Naples almost to Genoa, including much of

Etruscans
Italic Tribes

\^::m\ Greeks

^^^ Carthaginians

The Four Rival Peoples of the Western Mediterranean :
Etruscans, Italic Tribes, Greeks, and Carthaginians

the inland country as far back as the Apennines and even into
the Po valley. They seemed destined to become the final lords
of Italy, and they continued as an important people of the
West far down into Roman history, as we shall see.

The Carthaginians were the second of the three rivals of 778. Second,
the Italic tribes. During their great mercantile prosperity linian^s **"
after 1000 B.C., the Phoenicians carried their commerce far
into the western Mediterranean, as we have already stated
(§ 397). On the African coast opposite Sicily^ they established

490

Ancient Times

779. Third,
the Greeks

780. The
Greeks re-
pulse the
Carthaginians
from Sicily
and the
Etruscans
from Great
Greece

781. Empire
of Dionysius
of Syracuse
and its fall

a flourishing commercial city called Carthage, which was before
long the leading harbor in the western Mediterranean (Fig. 239)/
The Carthaginians soon held the northern coast of Africa west-
ward to the Atlantic. Besides gaining southern Spain, they
were also absorbing the islands of the western Mediterranean,
especially Sicily.

The Carthaginians were endeavoring to make the western
Mediterranean their own, when the Italic peoples saw their
third rivals invading the West. They were the Greeks. We
have already followed the expansion of the Greeks as they
founded their city-states along the coast of southern Italy and
in Sicily in the eighth century B.C. (§§ 437-443). The strife
among these city-states made the Greeks of the West as unable
to unite into a Greek nation as Greece itself had been. The
strongest of all the western Greek cities was Syracuse, which
took the lead more than once. We recall how the Athenians
tried to conquer the West by capturing Syracuse (§ 602).

Although we have spoken of these three peoples — Etrus-
cans, Carthaginians, and Greeks — as the three rivals of the
Italic tribes in the West, these Italic tribes were at first so
insignificant that the rivalry was long a three-cornered one, with
the Greeks in Sicily and southern Italy maintaining themselves
on two fronts against both Carthaginians and Etruscans. We
remember how in the famous year of Salamis the Greeks of
Syracuse won a great battle against the Carthaginians (§514)
and saved Sicily from being conquered by them (480 B.C.).
Only a few years later it was also Syracuse which met the bold
Etruscan sea robbers as their fleets appeared in the South, and
totally defeated them (Fig. 226). The western Greeks therefore
played an important part in the political situation, first by long
preventing the Carthaginians from seizing Sicily and southern
Italy, and second by breaking the sea power of the Etruscans.

By 400 B.C. Dionysius, the Greek tyrant of Syracuse, was
building up a powerful empire in Sicily and southern Italy,
which looked like a permanent union of the western Greeks

The Western Mediterranean World

491

as a nation. But the successors of Dionysius were not as effi-
cient as he. They called in the great philosopher Plato, and
they attempted to carry out some of his idealistic theories of
government (§673), but the result was a disastrous collapse of
the young Syracusan Empire (357-354 B.C.). Plato himself
expressed the fear that the Greek
language was then about to die
out in Sicily, and that the Car-
thaginians or one of the rising
Indo-European tribes of Italy
would triumph in Sicily.

Although the western Greeks,
like the homeland, failed to unite
in a strong and permanent state,
the influence of their civilization
in the West was all the more
important. Their civilization was
essentially the same as that which
we have already studied (Chapters
XI-XXI). At the very time when
Syracuse was victoriously beat-
ing back the Carthaginians and
Etruscans on two fronts, some of
the noblest monuments of Greek
architecture were rising in these
Western cities (Fig. 219, and Plate
VII, p. 560). In such wonderful
buildings as these, great architec-
ture made its first appearance in the western Mediterranean.
The same was true of many other contributions of Greek culture
with which we are now familiar. Thus fifteen hundred years
after the Italic tribes had first settled in Italy, theie grew up
on the south of them a wonderful world of civilization, which
went on growing and developing to reach its highest in that
Hellenistic culture which brought forth an Archimedes at

Fig. 226. Etruscan Helmet
captured by the greeks
OF Syracuse in their Vic-
tory OVER the Etruscans

AT CUMiE IN 474 B.C.

Hiero, the Greek tyrant of Syra-
cuse, dedicated this helmet at
Olympia as part of the spoil
which he took from the Etrus-
cans in his great naval victory
of Cumae (§ 780). It is now in
the British Museum, and it still
bears the dedicatory inscription
placed upon it by the Syracusan
tyrant nearly twenty-four hun-
dred years ago

782. Western
Greek cities
bring civili-
zation into
the western
Mediterra-
nean world

492

Ancient Times

783. The
tribes of
Latium,
and Alba
Longa the
leading
Latin town

S3n-acuse (§ 742). Let us now turn back to follow the career
of the barbarous Italic tribes of central Italy under the leader-
ship of Rome, and watch them slowly gaining organization and
power, and finally civilization, as they are dominated first by the
Etruscan and then by the Greek culture which we have been
recalling.

Section 73. Earliest Rome

/ On the south or east bank of the Tiber, which flows into the
sea in the middle of the west coast of Italy (see map, p. 484),
there was a group of Italic tribes known as the Latins. In the

Fig. 227. A Glimpse across the Plain of Latium and the
Appian Way to the Distant Alban Mountains

In the foreground is a short stretch of the Appian Way, the earliest
fine road built by. the Romans. It extended from Rome southward to
Capua, and was finally extended to Brundisium. The large round tower
is a famous tomb, built for a noble Roman lady named Cecilia Metella

days when the Etruscan sea-raiders first landed on the shores
north of the Tiber, these Latin tribes had occupied a plain
(Fig. 227) less than thirty by forty miles,^ that is, smaller than
many an American county. They called it " Latium," whence

1 Latium probably contained something over seven hundred square miles.

The Western Mediterranean World

493

their own name, " Latins." Like their Italic neighbors they
lived, scattered in small communities, cultivating grain and pas-
turing flocks on the upland. Their land was not very fertile,
and the battle for existence developed hardy and tenacious chil-
dren of the soil. Once a year they went up to the Alban Mount
(Fig. 227), where all the Latin tribes united in a feast of their

Early Latium

chief god, Jupiter, whose rude mud-brick sanctuary was on the
mount. Close by was a small town called Alba Longa, whose
leadership the Latin tribes followed when they were obliged, as
they very often were, to unite and repel the attacks of their
hostile neighbors on all sides. They watched very anxiously
the growth of the flourishing Etruscan towns on the other side
of the Tiber, and they did what they could to keep the Etrus-
cans from crossing to the Latin side.

494

Ancient Times

•784. The
emergence of
early Rome

When these Latin peasants needed weapons or tools, they
were obliged to carry up a little grain or an ox to a trading
post on the south side of the Tiber, just above the coast
marshes, which extended some ten or twelve miles inland from
the river's mouth. Shallow water at this point, and an island
(Fig. 238), made an easy crossing of the river, and the metal
tools of the early settlers had enabled them to build a stanch

Fig. 228. The Tiber and its Island at Rome

The Tiber is not a large river, but when swollen by the spring freshets,
it still sometimes floods a large portion of Rome, doing serious damage.
The houses which we see on the island are some of them old, but not
as old as the ancient Rome we are to study. The bridges, however, are
very old. The one on the right of the island was built of massive stone
masonry by L. Fabricius in 62 B.C. It has been standing for over two
thousand years. Many great Romans, like Julius Caesar, whose names
are familiar to us, must have crossed this bridge often

bridge here. Overlooking the bridge was a bold hill called the
Palatine, and a square stronghold crowning the hill guarded the
river crossing. Several neighboring hills bore straggling villages,
but the stronghold on the Palatine was their leader. Here,
stopped by the shoals and the bridge, moored now and then
an Etruscan ship which had sailed up the Tiber, the only navi-
gable river in Italy. On the low marshy ground, encircled by the
hills, was an open-air market, beside an old cemetery belonging

The Western Mediterranean World

495

to the villages (Fig. 229). Here in the Forum, as they called
this valley market by the cemetery, our Latin peasant could
meet th.e Etruscan traders and exchange his grain or his ox for
the metal tools or weapons which he needed. These were now
of iron, but he remembered the stories of his fathers, telling
how all their tools and weapons were formerly of. bronze. The
population of the villages was very mixed — some Latin
families who had
taken to trading
or owned fields
near by, Etruscan
traders and land-
owners, and a few
oversea strangers
of various nation-
alities, with many
outcasts and refu-
gees from outly-
ing communities.
Such must have
been the condition
of the group of vil-
lages called Rome
probably as early
as 1000 B.C. (but
cf. Fig. 229).

The fears of
the Latin tribes
regarding an invasion of the Etruscans were finally realized.
The Etruscan towns after 800 B.C. stretched far across north-
ern Italy — a great group of allied city-kingdoms, each with
its fortified city. Perhaps as early as 750 B.C. one of their
princes crossed the Tiber, drove out the last of the line of
Latin chieftains, and took possession of the stronghold on the
Palatine. From this place as his castle and palace he gained

Fig. 229. Grave of Prehistoric Vil-
lager FOUND UNDER THE FORUM AT ROME

Excavations under the Forum (plan, p. 500)
have disclosed a cemetery of graves Uke this.
The skeleton which we see here is that of one
of the prehistoric men who lived in the vil-
lages on the summits of the neighboring hills,
later united to form Rome (§ 785). The tools,
weapons, and pottery found in these graves show
that these people lived not many generations
after 1000 B.C., in the days when bronze was
giving way to iron (§ 784)

785. Rome
seized by
Etruscans
(about
750 B.C.)

496

Ancient Times

control of the villages on the hills above the Tiber, which then
gradually merged into the city of Rome. These Etruscan kings
soon extended their power over the Latin tribes of the Plain of

Fig. 230. A Street of Etruscan Tombs at Ancient C^ere
NOT FAR North of Rome

The tomb-chamber, or sometimes several such chambers within, con-
tained a sarcophagus in which the body was laid. It was often accom-
panied with jewelry of gold and silver, furniture, implements, and
weapons (Fig. 231), besides beautiful vases (Fig. 164). The walls of the
chambers were often painted with decorative scenes from the life of
the Etruscans and from scenes of Greek mythology, learned by the
Etruscans from their intercourse with the Greeks. The Etruscans
buried here lived in a strong walled town of which the ruins lie near
by. Their manufactures, especially in bronze, flourished, and they
carried on profitable commerce through their harbor town, only a few
miles below their city. In one of these tombs the name of the de-
ceased is inscribed on the wall as " Tarkhnas," which can be nothing
else than Tarquinius, the name preserved in Roman tradition as that of
the latest kings of Rome

Latium, and the town of Alba Longa by the Alban Mount,
which once led the Latins, disappeared. Thus Rome became a
city-kingdom under an Etruscan king, like the other Etruscan

The Western Mediterranean World

497

cities which stretched from Capua far north to the harbor of
Genoa. And such it remained for two centuries and a half.
Although Rome was ruled by a line of Etruscan kings, it must
be borne in mind
that the population
of Latium which
the Etruscan kings
governed contin-
ued to be Latin
and to speak the
Latin tongue.^

Etruscan ships
had known Greek

1 The above pres-
entation makes the
Hne of early kings at
Rome (about 750 to
about 500 B.C.) exclu-
sively Etruscan. The
traditional founding of
Rome not long before
750 B.C. would then
correspond to its cap-
ture and establishment
as a strong kingdom
by the Etruscans. We
possess no written doc-
uments of Rome for
this early period. We
are obliged to make
our conclusions largely
on the basis of a study
of archaeological re-
mains surviving in
Rome and Latium and
vicinity. Had these remains, together with the important elements of Etruscan
civilization adopted by the Romans, formed our only evidence, no one would
ever have suggested any other theory than that the kings of Rome were Etrus-
can. The later Romans themselves, however, with evident disinclination to be-
lieve that their early kings had been outsiders, cherished a tradition that their
kings were native Romans. This tradition, with many picturesque and pleasing
incidents (headpiece, p. 484), has found a place in literature, and is still widely
believed. It is possible that there may be some slight measure of truth in this
tradition, but it is not very probable in view of all the known evidence.

786. The
Etruscans
learn Greek
writing

Fig. 231. Etruscan Chariot of Bronze

This magnificent work is the finest surviving
product of Etruscan skill in bronze (§ 787). It
was found in an Etruscan tomb (Fig. 230) and
is now in the possession of the Metropolitan
Museum of New York. It probably dates from
the sixth century B.C.

498

Ancient Times

waters since Mycenaean days, and the Etruscans were con-
stantly trafficking in the Greek harbors. There they learned to
write their language with Greek letters. Many tombs (Fig. 230)
containing such inscriptions still survive in Italy. Although we
know the letters and can pronounce the Etruscan words,

787. Etrus-
cans learn
Greek indus-
tries, art, and
architecture

Fig. 232.

A View of the Tiber with the Aventine Hiij.
AND THE Etruscan Drain

As we look doum the -Tiber in this view, we stand not far from our
former position looking ?// the river (Fig. 228) (cf. map, p. 500). The
Aventine Hill is at the left. Along its foot, at the water's edge, ex-
tend the houses of modern Rome. At this end of this row of houses we
see the arched opening of the ancient Etruscan sewer, or drain (§ 788),
which served to drain the Forum under which it passed. The Romans
called it the Cloaca Maxima (chief sewer). Although much altered in
later times, its most ancient portions are probably the oldest surviving
masonry at Rome

scholars are still unable to understand them ; nor can the race
of the Etruscans as yet be determined from them.

This intercourse with Greece brought in beautiful Greek
pottery (Fig. 164), and the Etruscans quickly learned to make
similar decorative paintings. Many such paintings still cover
the walls of Etruscan tombs and show us how the Etruscans
looked, the clothing they wore, and the weapons they carried.

The Western Mediterranean World 499

Having learned to mine copper, tliey early produced such fine
work in bronze (Fig. 231) that it even excelled the metal work
of the Greeks for a time, and they developed a flourishing com-
merce in this industry. They likewise borrowed a great deal
from Grecian architecture, but unlike the Greeks they made
plentiful use of the arch, with which they had probably become
acquainted in Asia Minor (Fig. 224). It was the Etruscans
who introduced the arch into Italy. Their architecture was
the earliest known in the city of Rome, and always had a
great influence upon the architecture of the Romans.

The Etruscan kings introduced great improvements into 788. Rule of
Rome. The Forum, the low market valley, was often flooded can kings'of
in the rainy season, and they built a heavy masonry drain t^^jjlexpul-
arched at the top, which carried off the water to the river and sion (about

. 500 B.C.)

made the city much more healthful. This ancient sewer dram
still survives (Fig. 232). On the hill called the Capitol, between
the Forum and the Tiber, they built a temple to Jupiter, the
State god, which survived for centuries. But the cruelty and
tyranny of the Etruscan rulers finally caused a revolt, led prob-
ably by the Etruscan nobles themselves, and the kings of Rome
were driven out. The fugitive king and his followers fled north-
ward to their kinsmen, to Caere, where Etruscan tombs which
probably belonged to them still survive (Fig. 230). Thus about
500 B.C. the career of Rome under kings came to an end ; but
the two and a half centuries of Etruscan rule left their mark
on Rome, always afterward discernible in architecture, religion,
tribal organization, and some other things.

Section 74. The Early Republic : its Progress
AND Government

During this Etruscan period, Greek influences were equally im- 789. Greek

portant in Latium. Down at the dock below the Tiber bridge, adop^ted in

ships from the Greek cities of the south were becoming more ^^"^^
and more common. Long before the Etruscan kings were

500

Ancient Times

driven out, the Roman trader had gradually learned to pick
out the names of familiar objects of trade in the bills handed
him by the Greek merchants. Erelong the Roman traders too
were scribbling memoranda of their own with the same Greek

Map of Early Rome showing the Successive Stages
OF ITS Growth

letters, which thus became likewise the Roman alphabet, slightly
changed to suit the Latin language. Thus the oriental alphabet
was carried one step further in the long westward journey
which finally made it the alphabet with which this book is
printed. In the hands of the Carthaginians and Romans
in the west, and the Arameans (§ 205) on the east, the

The Western Mediterranean World

501

Phoenician alphabet and its descendent alphabets now stretched
from India to the Atlantic (Fig. 160).

There had been no Roman ships at the Tiber docks at first,
but as time passed a Roman mechanic here and there learned
to build a ship like those of the Greeks alongside it. As Roman
traffic thus grew, it was found very inconvenient to pay bills

790. Greek
influence in
shipbuilding,
business,
money, and
measures
in Rome

Fig. 233. Specimens of Early Roman Copper Money

In the time of Alexander the Great (second half of the fourth century B.C.),
the Romans found it too inconvenient to continue paying their debts in
goods, especially in cattle (§ 784). They therefore cast copper in blocks,
each block with the figure of an ox upon it (see A^ above), to indicate
its value. The Roman word for cattle [peats) was the origin of their
frequent word for property [pecttnid) and has descended to us in our
common word " pecuniary." These blocks were unwieldy, and influenced
by the Greeks, the Romans then cast large disks of copper [B^ above),,
which also were very ponderous, each weighing nearly a pound
Troy. Hence this coin, called zxv as^ was divided into twelve smaller
coins, each called an ounce (Roman una'a), and there were copper
coins of two, three, four, and six icncias. When two generations later
(268 B.C.) the Romans began to coin silver (see Fig. 235), copper was
no longer used for large payments and the as was reduced in size
to one sixth its former weight

with grain and oxen while the Greek merchant at the dock paid
his bills with copper and silver coins. For a long time instead
of the oxen themselves, rough bars of copper were used, each
bearing the figure of an ox (Fig. 233, A). It was not until
over a hundred and fifty years after the Etruscan kings had
been driven out that the Romans issued actual copper coins
(Fig. 233,^). Later, as contact with the Greek cities increased,

502

Ancient Times

791. Traces
of Greek
speech in
Rome and
I^tium

792. Greek
influences -
religion

the Romans also began to issue silver coins, using as a basis
the Attic drachma (§ 832). In the same way, too, the Romans
gradually adopted the oriental measures of length and of
bulk with which the Greeks measured out to them the things
they bought.

Greek speech too began to leave its traces in the Latin speech
of Rome. The Latin townsmen and peasants learned the Greek
words for the clothing offered to them for sale, or for household
utensils and pottery and other things brought in by the Greeks.
So the Phoenician garment which the Greek merchants called
kitbn (§ 394), the Latin peasants pronounced ktun (kto6n), and
in course of time they gave it a Latin ending ic and dropped
the ^, so that it became our familiar word " tunic."

But the Greeks also brought in things which could not be
weighed and measured like produce, from a realm of which
the Roman was beginning to catch fleeting glimpses. For the
peasant heard of strange gods of the Greeks, and he was told
that they were the counterparts or the originals of his own
gods. For him there was a god over each realm in nature and
each field of human life: Jupiter was the great Sky-god and
king of all the gods ; Mars, the patron of all warriors ; Venus,
the queen of love ; Juno, an ancient Sky-goddess, was protect-
ress of women, of birth and marriage, while Vesta, too, watched
over the household lif6, with its hearth fire surviving from the
nomad days of the fathers on the Asiatic steppe two thousand
years before (§ 249) ; Ceres was the goddess who maintained
the fruitfulness of the earth, and especially the grainfields
(cf. English " cereal ") ; and Mercury was the messenger of
the gods who protected intercourse and w^/rhandising, as his
name shows. The streets were full of Greek stories regarding
the heroic adventures of these divinities when they were on
earth. The Roman learned that Venus was the Greek Aphrodite,
Mercury was Hermes, Ceres was Demeter, and so on.
793. Oracles This process was aided by the influence of Greek oracles.
The oracles delivered by the Greek Sibyl, the prophetess of

The Western Mediterranean World

503

Apollo of Delphi (Fig. 172), were deeply reverenced in Italy.
Gathered in the Sibylline Books, they were regarded by the
Romans as mysterious revelations of the future. Another
method of reading the future was brought in by the Etruscans,
who were able to discover in the liver (Fig. 234) of a sheep
killed for sacrifice signs which they believed revealed the future.
This art had been received by the Etruscans from the

Fig. 234. Bronze Model of a Liver used by the Etruscans
FOR Divination, after the Old Babylonian Manner

The surface of the model is divided by lines into sections, forming a
kind of guiding diagram Hke the model livers of baked clay employed by
the Babylonians (Fig. 94). The Etruscans must have received the art
in the East, presumably in Asia Minor, before they migrated to Italy

Babylonians (Fig. 94) by way of Asia Minor, whence the
Etruscans brought it to Italy.

An art like this appealed tc) the rather coldly calculating 794. Mechan-
mind of the Roman. As he looked toward his gods he felt no of Roman
doubts or problems, like those which troubled the spirit of [heToma'jf
Euripides (§ 581). He lacked the warm and vivid imagination mind
of the Greeks, which had created the beautiful Greek mythology.
He was inclined to regard acts of worship as the mere fulfill-
ment of a contract by which the gods must bestow favors if
the worshiper was faithful in the performance of his duties.
In religion, therefore, the Roman saw only a list of mechanical

504

Ancient Times

79<. Practi-
cal sagacity
of the
Romans

796. Elective
consuls re-
place the
kings ; the
Roman
Republic is
established

duties, such as the presentation of offerings, the sacrifice of
animals, and the like, and such duties were easily fulfilled.
In accordance with this rather legal conception of religion, he
was fitted for great achievements in political and legal organ-
ization, but not for new and original developments in religion,
art, literature, or discoveries in science.

Hence it is that in sketching the beginnings of Rome we
have found no Homer to picture to us in noble verse the heroic
days of her early struggles. Although less gifted than the
Greeks, the Romans nevertheless possessed a remarkable abil-
ity in applying sober and practical common sense, enlightened
by experience^ to every problem they met. As we shall see,
the Romans so contrived their government that it was led
and guided by the combined experience of the ripest and
most skilled leaders among them. Thus the Roman State was
never exposed to the momentary whims of an inexperienced
multitude as in Athens. It was this wisdom and sagacity of
the Romans in practical affairs which gave them marked
superiority over the Greeks in such matters. Let us now
see how Roman political wisdom developed the invincible
Roman State.

When the Etruscan kings were driven out of Rome, about
500 B.C., the nobles, called patricians^ who had been chiefly
instrumental in expelling them, were in control of the govern-
ment. But none of their number was able to make himself
king. Perhaps by compromise with the people, the patricians
agreed that two of their number should be elected as heads of
the State. These two magistrates, called consuls^ were both
to have the same powers, were to serve for a year only and
then give way to two others. To choose them, annual elections
were held in an assembly of the weapon-bearing men, largely
under the control of the patricians. Nevertheless, we must call
this new state a republic, of which the consuls were the presi-
dents ; for the people had a voice in electing them. But as
only patricians could serve as consuls, their government was

The Western Mediterranean World 505

very oppressive. The people, called the plebs (compare our
" plebeian "), especially among the Latin tribes, refused to
submit to such oppression.

The patricians were unable to get on without the help of the 797- The

rr.1 1 r tribunes de-

peasants as soldiers in their frequent wars. They therefore fenders of
agreed to give the people a larger share in the government, by ^ ^ ^^^^ ^
allowing them in their own assembly to elect a group of new
officials, called tribunes. The tribunes had the right to veto the
action of any officer of the government — even that of the
consuls themselves. When any citizen was treated unjustly by
a consul he had only to appeal to the tribunes, and they could
rescind the consul's unjust action and even save a citizen from
sentence of death. The tribunes therefore gained great in-
fluence, because they could stop the enforcement of any law
they thought unjust. Later, as government business increased,
their number was also increased.

In the beginning it would seem that almost all the business 798. inability

r • 1 1 1 r 1 1 rr-ii 1 Of thc COnSUls

of government was m the hands of the consuls. 1 hey were the to attend to
commanding generals of the army in war, they had charge of bus^nes^"^''^
the public funds in the treasury, and they were the judges in
all cases at law. It was difficult to combine all these duties.
The consuls were often obliged to be absent from Rome for
long periods while leading the army, and at such times they
were of course unable to give any attention to cases at law,
and two citizens having a lawsuit might be obliged to wait until
the war was over. Much other ordinary business, like that of
the treasury, demanded more time than the consuls could pos-
sibly give it. They found it difficult to carry on the volume of
business which the government required.

This situation made it necessary to create new officers for 799. Orow-
various kinds of business. To take care of the government government
funds, treasury officials called qucEstors were appointed. Two °^^*^'^
public officers called censors were required to keep lists of
the people, to assess the amount of taxes each citizen owed,
to determine voting rights, and to look after the daily conduct

So6 Ancient Times

of the people and see that nothing improper was permitted.
Our own use of the word " censor " is derived from these
Roman officials. For the decision of legal cases a judge called
a prcBtor was appointed to assist the consul, and the number
of such judges slowly increased. In times of great national
danger it was customary to appoint some revered and trust-
worthy leader as the supreme ruler of the State. He was called
the Dictator, and he could hold his power but a brief period.

800. Public But a government is called upon to do some other things of
?he control" great importance besides attending to administrative, financial,
ul? ^trickns ^^^ ^^^^^ business. Important public questions arise which are

not mere items of routine business. Examples of such questions
are declaring war, restoring peace, and making new laws of all
sorts. The consuls had great power and influence in all such
matters, but they were much influenced by a council of patri-
cians called the Senate (from 'LRtin senex, meaning "old man"),
which had existed even as far back as the Etruscan kings, who
used to call upon the Senate for advice. Now the patricians
enjoyed the exclusive right to serve as consuls, to sit in the
Senate, and to hold almost all of the offices created to carry
on the business of government (§ 799). The power which the
patricians held, therefore, quite unfairly exceeded that of the
plebeians.

801. The The tribunes, as we have seen (§ 797), could protect the
the piebs and people from some injustices, and save their lives if they were
patricians illegally condemned to death. But they could not secure to the

citizen all his rights. The tribunes could not recover for the
cattle of the people the vanished grass in the public pastures,
when they had been nipped clean by the great herds of the
patricians. The tribunes could not secure for a citizen the right
to be elected as consul, or to become a senator, or to marry a
patrician's daughter. The struggle which had resulted in the
appointment of the tribunes, therefore, went on — a struggle
of the common people to win their rights from the wealthy and
powerful. It was a struggle like that which we have followed

The Western Mediterranean World 507

in Athens and the other Greek states, but at Rome it reached
a much wiser and more successful settlement. The citizens of
Rome manfully stood forth for their rights, and without fight-
ing, civil war, or bloodshed they secured them to a large
extent in the course of the first two centuries after the found-
ing of the Republic.

They insisted upon a record of the existing laws in writing, 802. The old
in order that they might know by what laws they were being to writing and
judged. About fifty years after the establishment of the Republic, ^^^„2^^iaj^^
the earliest Roman laws were reduced to writing and engraved
upon twelve tablets of bronze (450 B.C.). But at the same time
the people demanded the right to share in the making of new
laws, and to possess an assembly of the people, which might
pass new laws.

Far back in the days of the kings the people had enjoyed 803. The
the right to a limited share in the government. To express Roman
their opinion they gathered in an assembly called the Comitia. . bffbrSher-
It was made up of groups of families or brotherhoods (like the hoods
Greek brotherhoods, § 385), each called a curia. Hence this cuHcUa)
assembly was called the Comitia curiata. Each such brother-
hood assembled and voted by itself, and its decision then counted
as one vote. A majority of the brotherhoods decided a question.

In the early days of the Republic, when the frequent wars 804. The
kept the people much together in camp, arrayed in their fight- by centuries
ing hundreds, or " centuries," it easily became customary to call f^^Sa/a)
them together by centuries. Thus a new assembly by centuries
arose, called for this reason the Comitia centuriata. Owing to
the expense of arms and equipment, the men of wealth and
influence in the centuries far outnumbered the poorer classes.
The assembly by centuries was therefore controlled by the
wealthy and noble classes ; they were soon electing the consuls,
and erelong they had deprived the old assembly by brotherhoods
of all its power.

At the same time another assembly of the people arose,
intended to give them an opportunity to transact their own

5o8

Ancient Times

805. The

tribal

assembly

{Cotnitia

iribtita)

806. Law-
making
power of the
assemblies
and resulting
laws making
for equality
of plebs with
patricians

807. The
new nobility
of former
magistrates

plebeian public business concerning solely the common people.
This third assembly came together by tribes, and it was there-
fore called the Comitia tributa, or tribal assembly. In this body
every man's vote was as good as another's, and as it was pre-
sided over by the tribunes, elected to protect the people, the
decisions of this assembly really expressed the will of the people.

Having shaken off the legal power of the Senate to control
their action, these two assemblies, the centuriate and the tribal,
became the lawmaking bodies of the Roman State. Eventually
the people were also given voting rights in the centuriate assembly
equal to those of the patricians and the wealthy. As a result the
people were able to pass laws by which they, especially the last
two assemblies, gained the right to make laws, and in this
way the people gradually secured a fairer share of the public
lands and further social rights. Finally, and most important
of all, these new laws increased the rights of the people to
hold office. In the end Roman citizens elected their plebeian
neighbors as censors and quaestors, "as judges and at last
even as consuls, and they saw men of the people sitting in
the Senate.

This progress of the people in power brought with it im-
portant new developments affecting both society and govern-
ment. Roman citizens had a deep respect for government and
for its officials. The Roman consul appeared in public attended
by twelve men called Hctors, bearing the symbols of State
authority. Each man carried a bundle of rods, suggesting the
consul's power to scourge the condemned ; and from the midst
of the rods rose an ax, symbolizing the consul's legal right to
inflict the death penalty. The other officials of high rank were
likewise attended by a smaller group of lictors. The consuls
and all the higher officials wore white robes edged with purple,
a costume which only these men had the right to wear. When
a magistrate went out of office he might assume his official
garment from time to time on feast days. There soon grew up
a group of once plebeian families, thus distinguished by the

The Western MediterranecMi World 509

public service of its members, to whom the Roman citizens
looked up with great respect. When the voters were called
upon to select their candidates, they preferred members of
these eminent families, especially for the consulship. A new
nobility was thus formed, made up of such illustrious families
and the old patricians.

This situation directly affected the Senate, the members of 808. The
which had formerly been appointed from among the patricians gai^s"con-
by the consuls. A new law, however, authorized the censors to gg^J^Jg'^^
make out the lists of senators, giving the preference to those
who had been magistrates. Thus the new nobility of ex-
magistrates, formerly plebeians, entered the Senate, bringing
in fresh blood from the ranks, of the people.

As a result of these changes the Senate was made up of the 809. The
three hundred men of Rome who had gained the most experi- th "teacfeT"^
ence in government and in public affairs. When the herald's ^J^P °^^''.
trumpet echoed from the Forum, and the senators, responding to
the call, crowded into the modest assembly hall beside the
Forum and took their seats, the consul called them to order.
He was president of the Senate, and he and his colleague, the
other consul, were the heads of the State, with more power
than any senator possessed. From his chair on the platform the
consul looked down into the strong faces of wise and sagacious
men, many of whom had already held his high office and knew
far more about its duties than he did. Moreover, while he was
in office for only a year, the men confronting him held their
seats in the Senate for life, and most of them had been conduct-
ing public business there for years. The result was that their
combined influence, operating steadily for many years, was too
strong for the consul. Instead of telling the senators of his
own plans and of the laws he desired, he found himself listening
to the proposals of the Senate and carrying out the will of the
senators. As a result the consul became a kind of senatorial
minister, carrying on the government according to instructions
from the Senate.

510

Ancient Times

8io. The
Senate gains
control of
lawmaking

8ii. The
Roman
Senate the
supreme
leader of
the State

In the matter of lawmaking a similar growth of the Senate's
influence took place. Although the popular assemblies (§§ 803-
805) had the right to make laws, it was not in their power to
propose a new law. They could vote upon it only after it
had been proposed by a magistrate, especially by one of the
tribunes, who were the presiding officers of the tribal as-
sembly. The influence of the Senate on the magistrates was
such that the magistrates discussed with the senators every
law to be brought before the assemblies for adoption. The
tribunes could stop the operation of any law, and hence
the Senate had become accustomed to consult with them
before a law was passed. The result was that the tribunes
were given membership and seats in the Senate, and so
added to the power and influence of that already powerful
body.

By far the larger part of the Roman citizens lived too far
away to come up to the city and vote. The small minority
living in Rome, who could be present and vote at the meetings
of the assemblies, were familiar with the faces of the senators
and they well knew the wisdom, skill, and experience of these
old statesmen. They also knew that there was a strong feeling
of patriotism among the senators, and standing at the open
doors of the Senate hall they had heard the voice of many
a gray-haired ex-consul whom they revered, as it rang through
the Forum, in eloquent support of some patriotic measure
or in earnest summons to national defense. Feeling too their
own ignorance of public affairs, the Roman citizens were not
unwilling that important public questions should be settled by
the Senate. Thus the Roman Senate became a large com-
mittee of experienced statesmen, guiding and controlling the
Roman State. They formed the greatest council of rulers
which ever grew up in the ancient world, or perhaps in any
age. They were a body of aristocrats, and their control of
Rome made it an aristocratic state, in spite of its republican
form. We are now to watch the steady development and

The Western Mediterranean World 5 1 1

progress of Roman power (see map, p. 516) under the wise and
stable leadership of the Sepate. We should bear in mind, how-
ever, that the Senate's power was a slow growth, continuing
during the wars and conquests which we are now to follow.

Section 75. The Expansion of the Roman Republic
AND THE Conquest of Italy

It was a tiny nation which began its uncertain career after 812. The
the expulsion of the Etruscan kings. The territory of the amiThetrSty
Roman Republic was the mere city with the adjacent fields ^'^^ ^omt^
for a very few miles around. On the other side of the Tiber
lived the dreaded Etruscans, and on the Roman side of the
river, all around the little republic, lay the lands of the Latin
tribes (§ 783), who had combined in what was called the Latin
League (see map, p. 516). The league was independent and
did not acknowledge itself subject to Rome. But in their own
struggle with their enemies, the Latin tribes found the leader-
ship - of the city indispensable. The Latin League therefore
made a perpetual treaty with Rome — a treaty uniting the
league and the city in a combination for mutual defense under
the leadership of Rome. But this arrangement produced only
a loose union, not yet forming a unified nation. Nevertheless,
the Roman Senate gave to the citizens of Latium privileges in
Rome about equal to those of Roman citizens, and the Latins
were therefore ready to fight for the defense of the city whose
leadership they followed.

For two generations the new republic struggled for the 813. Early
preservation of its mere existence. This struggle against the"lfepub-
threatening enemies on all its frontiers, especially the Etrus- JEtru?^^"^^
cans, was the motive power which stirred the little nation and italic
to constant effort, to vigorous life, and to steady growth. Fortu- "^^^
nately for the Romans, within a generation after the founda-
tion of the Republic the fleet of Syracuse utterly destroyed
the Etruscan fleet (474 b.c.) (Fig. 226). Later the Etruscans

512

Ancient Times

were attacked in the rear by the Gauls (§722 and Fig. 215),
who were at this time pouring over the Alpine passes into the
valley of the Po and laying waste the Etruscan cities of the
North. This weakening of the Etruscans at the hands of their
enemies on both north and south probably saved Rome from
destruction. It enabled the Romans to maintain a ten yearo'
siege of Veii, a strong southern fortress of the Etruscans only
eight miles from Rome, till they captured and destroyed it
(396 B.C.). At the same time the Italic tribes surrounding
Latium on the south, east, and north were constantly invading
and plundering the fields and pastures of the Latin tribes and
threatening the city. Rome beat off these marauders, and by
establishing a group of colonies along the coast south of the
Tiber, formed a buffer against such invasions from the South.
By 400 B.C. or a little after, the Romans had conquered and
taken possession of a fringe of new territory on all sides, which
protected them from their enemies.

In the new territory thus gained the Romans planted colonies
of citizens, or they granted citizenship or other valuable privi-
leges to the absorbed population. Roman peasants, obligated to
bear Roman arms and having a voice in the government, thus
pushed out into the expanding borders of Roman territory.
This policy of agricultural expansion steadily and consistendy
followed by the Senate was irresistible, for it gave to Rome
an ever-increasing body of brave and hardy citizen-soldiers,
cultivating their own lands, and ready at all times to take up
the sword in defense of the State which shielded them. The
Roman policy was thus in striking contrast with the narrow
methods of the Greek republics, which jealously prevented out-
siders from gaining citizenship. It was the steady expansion of
Rome under this policy which in a little over two centuries after
the expulsion of the Etruscan kings made the little republic on
the Tiber mistress of all Italy (see map, p. 516).

The second century of Roman expansion opened with a fear-
ful catastrophe, which very nearly accomplished the complete

The Western Mediterranean World 513

destruction of the nation. In the first two decades after 815. Capture
400 B. c. the barbarian Gauls, who had been overrunning the the GaSs ^
territory of the Etruscans (§813), finally reached the lower (382 b.c.)
Tiber, and the Roman army which went out to meet them was
completely defeated. The city, still undefended by walls, was
entirely at their mercy. They entered at once (382 B.C.),
plundering and burning. Only the citadel on the Capitol hill
held out against the barbarians. Long afterward Roman tradi-
tion told how even the citadel was being surprised at night by
a party of Gauls who clambered up the heights, when the
sacred geese, kept in a temple close by, aroused the garrison
by their cackling, and the storming party was repulsed. Wearied
by a long siege of the citadel the Gauls at length agreed to
accept a ransom of gold and to return northward, where they
settled in the valley of the Po. But they still remained a
serious danger to the Romans.

As Rome recovered from this disaster, it was evident that 816. Subju-
the city needed fortifications, and for the first time masonry Latin tribes
walls (plan, p. 500) were built around it. This gave the city a o?*Jhe°Lau^n
strength it had not before possessed. It gained the southern League
territory of the Etruscans, now much weakened by the inroads
of the Gauls, and it also seized new possessions in the Cam-
panian plain. The high-handed manner in which Rome was
now taking new lands seems to have alarmed even the Latin
tribes, and they endeavored to break away from the control of
the powerful walled city. In the two years' war which resulted
the city was completely victorious, and the Roman Senate
forced the defeated Latin tribes to break up the Latin League
(338 B.C.). The Roman Senate then proceeded to make sepa-
rate treaties with each of the Latin tribes, and did not grant
them as many privileges as formerly. Rome thus gained the
undisputed leadership of the Latin tribes, which was at last
to bring her the leadership of Italy.

The year 338 b.c, in which this important event took
place, is a date to be well remembered, for it also witnessed

514

Ancient Times

817. The
leadership
of Greeks
and Latins
decided in the
same year

(338 B.C.)

818. The

new Samnite
enemy and
the opening
of hostilities

819. The

Samnite
Wars (325-
290 B.C.) and
the battle
of Sentinum
(295 B.C.)

the defeat of the Greek cities at the hands of Philip oi
Macedon (§ 685). In the same year, therefore, both the
Greeks and the Latins saw themselves conquered and falling
under the leadership of a single state — the Greeks under that
of Macedonia, the Latins under that of Rome. But in Greece
that leadership was in the hands of one man who might and
did perish; while in Italy the leadership of the Latins was in
the hands of a whole body of wise leaders, the Roman Senate.
In sixty-five years they were now to gain the leadership of
all Italy (see maps II, III, and IV, p. 516).

Meantime another formidable foe, a group of Italic tribes
called the Samnites, had been gaining possession of the moun-
tains which form the backbone of the Italian peninsula inland
from Rome. They had gained some civilization from the
Greek cities of the South, and they were able to muster a
large army of hardy peasants, very dangerous in war. But
they lacked the steadying and continuous leadership of a gov-
erning city like Rome. Some of them drifted down into the
plains of Campania (see map, p. 484), where they captured
Capua, one of the southern outposts of the Etruscans. Within
forty years after the expulsion of the Gauls, the Samnites were
in hostile collision with Rome. By 325 B.C. a fierce war broke
out, which lasted with interruptions for a generation. The
Romans lost several battles, and in one case were subjected
by the Samnites to the ordeal of marching " under the yoke,"
a humiliation which the Romans never forgot.-^

But the resources of the Roman Senate were not confined
to fighting. They gained lands and established Roman colonies
on the east of the Apennines and in the plain of Campania.
From these new possessions they were able to attack the Sam-
nites from both sides of the mountains (see map II, p. 516). The
Samnites attempted a combination of Rome's enemies against
her. They succeeded in shifting their army northward and

iThe defeated troops in token of their submission marched under a lance
supported horizontally on two upright lances and called a "yoke."

The Western Mediterranean World 515

joining forces with both the Etruscans and the Gauls. All cen-
tral and much of northern Italy was now involved in the war.
In the mountains midway between the upper Tiber and the
eastern shores of Italy the Roman army met and crushed the
combined forces of the allies in a terrible battle at Sentinum
(295 B.C.). This battle decided the future of Italy for over
two thousand years. It not only gave the Romans possession
of central Italy, but it made them the leading power in the
whole peninsula (see map III, p. 516).

Henceforth the Etruscans were unable to maintain them- 820. Rome
selves as a leading power. One by one their cities were taken of central
by the Romans, or they entered into alliance with Rome. The J^^J "tTjjfe"
Gallic barbarians were beaten off, and the stream of Gallic in- Amus River
vasion which was thus forced back in northern Italy by Rome tinum
flowed over eastward and southward into the Balkan Peninsula,
as we have seen (§ 722). The setded Gauls, however, continued
to hold the Po valley, and the northern boundary of the Roman
conquests was along the Amus River, south of the Apennines.
Southward the resistance of the Samnites was easily crushed
within five years after the battle at Sentinum. They and the.
other leading peoples of southern Italy, with the exception of
the Greeks there, were forced to enter the Roman alliance.
The Romans were supreme from the Arnus to the Greek cities
of southern Italy (see map III, p. 516).

The great rivals in the Western world were now the Romans, 821. En-
the Greeks, and the Carthaginians. As for the home cities of the w*estern
the Greeks, they were under the successors of Alexander, fie^ht- Greeks to

' -^ ' fc> unite against

ing among themselves for possession of the fragments of his Rome
empire (Chap. XX), while Rome was gaining the leadership
of Italy. As for the western Greek colonies (§§ 440-441) four
centuries of conflict among themselves had left them still a " •
disunited group of cities fringing southern Italy and Sicily.
They had long been fighting with the Italic tribes and other
peoples of southern Italy, and a number of the Greek cities
of the region had fallen. The survivors, alarmed at the

I. Italy at the
Begrinninsr of the
Roman Republic

(about 500 B.C.)

III. Roman Power

after the Samnite

Wars (290 B.C.)

55 iSo ik

V///'//^ Eoman Territory
Syracuse

Expansion of Roman Power in Italy

Si6

The Western Mediterranean World 517

threatening expansion of Roman power, now made another
endeavor to unite, and called in help from the outside.

The leading city of the Greeks in southern Italy was Taren- 822. Pynhus
tum. Unable to secure effective aid from the now declining and h/s"p^ian
home cities of Greece, the men of Tarentum sent an appeal of forming

' ^^ an empire of

to Pyrrhus, the vigorous and able king of Epirus, just across the western

Greeks

from the heel of Italy. Pyrrhus fully understood the highly
developed art of war as it had grown up with Epaminondas
(§ 638) and Philip of Macedon (§ 681). Besides Thessalian
horsemen, the best cavalry in the world, he had secured from
the Orient a formidable innovation in the form of fighting
elephants. With an army of well-trained Greek infantry of
the phalanx besides, and his well-known talent as a soldier,
Pyrrhus was a highly dangerous foe. His purpose was to
form a great nation of the western Greeks in Sicily and Italy.
Such a nation would have proved a formidable rival of both
Rome and Carthage.

On the arrival of Pyrrhus he completely defeated the 823. The war
Romans at Heraclea in 280 B.C., and in the following year ^{^Xo- ^'^^ "^
they were routed again. Pyrrhus proceeded in triumph to ^^^ ^■^•^ '
Sicily, where he gained the whole island except the Cartha- defeats at
ginian colony on the outermost western end (Lilybaeum), (28oB.c.)and
which he could not capture for lack of a fleet. He seemed ^l^fl^\
about to succeed in his effort to establish a powerful western
Greek empire, when he met with serious difficulties. The
Carthaginians, who saw a dangerous rival rising only a few
hours' sail from their home harbor, sent a fleet to assist the
Romans against Pyrrhus. When the ambassador of Pyrrhus
arrived at Rome with proposals of peace, the Carthaginian fleet
was at the mouth of the Tiber, and the Roman Senate reso-
lutely refused to make peace while the army of Pyrrhus occu-
pied Italian soil. At the same time the Greeks disagreed among
themselves, as they always did at critical times. Pyrrhus then
withdrew from Sicily, and finding himself unable to inflict a
decisive defeat on the Romans, he returned to Epirus.

Si8

Ancient Times

824. Rome
in possession
of the entire
Italian pen-
insula; result-
ing rivalry
between
Rome and
Carthage

One by one the helpless Greek cities now surrendered to the
Roman army, and they had no choice but to accept alliance
with the Romans (see map IV, p. 516). Thus ended all hope
of a great Greek niation in the West. In two centuries and
a quarter (500-275 B.C.) the tiny republic on the Tiber had
gained the mastery of the entire Italian peninsula south of the
Po valley (see map IV, p. 516). There were now but two rivals
in the western Mediterranean world — Rome and Carthage. In
following the inevitable struggle of these two for the mastery
of the western Mediterranean world during the next two gen-
erations, we shall be watching the final conflict between the
western wings of the two great racial lines, the Semitic and
the Indo-European (Fig. 112). But before we take up this
struggle we must learn more about the character and the civili-
zation of the great Roman power which thus grew up in Italy.
These men who won the supremacy of Italy for the little
republic on the Tiber were the first generation of Romans
about whom sufficient information has survived to make us
well acquainted with them.

QUESTIONS

Section 72. Into what divisions does the Mediterranean fall.?
In which did civilization arise.? Why.? Describe Italy. Tell about
the earliest migrations into Italy and the incoming of metal. What
Indo-European tribes came into Italy, and when.? Did they find
civilization there.? What weapon had the western Mediterranean
peoples devised? What three rivals of the Italic tribes came in?
Tell about their coming. What did the Greeks accomplish against
the Carthaginians and Etruscans? Did the western Greeks unite
into a nation ? What did they bring into Italy ?

Section 73. Describe Latium. What tribes settled there?
What town first led them ? Where was the market of the Latins ?.
Who traded there ? Describe the place. What was it called ? Who
seized it in the eighth century B.C.? What line of kings arose?
Describe their rule and civilization.

Section 74. Whence did the Romans gain their alphabet ? What
other Greek influences can you mention? What oriental mode of

The Western Mediterranean World

519

divination did the Etruscans and the Romans practice? What can
you say of the religious ideas of the Romans ? Who succeeded the
Etruscan kings as rulers of Rome ? What magistrates did the people
elect for their own protection? What great council arose? Who
had the exclusive right to serve as consuls and to sit in the Senate ?
Describe the assemblies of the people. Who had the power to make
laws? What new nobility arose? How did they gain control of the
Senate ? How did the Senate gain the leadership of the State ? What
can you say of this leadership ?

Section 75. What was the relation between Rome and the Latin
tribes around it? . What was happening to the Etruscans after
500 B.C.? Describe the colonial policy of the Roman Senate. Tell
about the coming of the Gauls. What happened to the Latin League
in 338 B.C.? What happened in Greece the same year? Who were
the Samnites? Tell the story of the Roman struggle with them.
What battle ended it? When? Were the western Greeks able to
unite against Rome? What did Tarentum do? Recount the war
with Pyrrhus. What happened to the Greeks of Italy after the retire-
ment of Pyrrhus? How long had it taken Rome to gain the leader-
ship of Italy ?

Note. The tailpiece below shows us the prehistoric warriors of the western
Mediterranean in the thirteenth century B.C. Notice the heavy bronze swords
carried with point up. They are simply elongated Egyptian daggers (Fig. 132
and § 776). The scene is engraved on the walls of the temple of Abu Simbel in
Egypt (Fig. 70), built by Ramses II, in whose army these Westerners were
serving.

;f^' /r-i l/n

Illllllll ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■!

i^mi^ini

CORNtllV^ IVCIVS SCIPIO BARSATVS CNAIVODCATlJt

CHAPTER XXIII

THE SUPREMACY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC IN ITALY AND
THE RIVALRY WITH CARTHAGE

Section j^. Italy under the Early Roman
Republic

825. The
problem of
making Italy
a nation

826. Self-
governing
local com-
munities
made allies

After the leadership of Italy had been gained by Rome, there
were men still living who could remember the Latin war (ended
338 B.C.), when Rome had lost even the surrounding fields of
little Latium. Now, sixty-five years later, the city on the Tiber
was mistress of all Italy. The new power over a large group
of cities and states, thus gained within a single lifetime, was
exercised by the Roman Senate with the greatest skill and
success. Had Rome annexed all the conquered lands, and en-
deavored to rule them from Rome, the population of Italy
would have been dissatisfied, and constant revolts would have
followed. How, then, was Italy to become a nation, controlled
by Rome ?

The Romans began by granting the defeated cities a kind
of citizenship. It entitled them to all the protection of the
Roman State in carrying on commerce and business, to all

Note. The above headpiece represents the beautiful stone sarcophagus of
one of the early Scipios, found in the family tomb on the Appian Way (Fig. 227).
It is adorned with details of Greek architecture, which clearly show that it was
done by a Greek artist (§ 831). Verses in early Latin, on the side of the sar-
cophagus, contain praises of the departed Scipio.

520

The Supremacy of the Roman Republic in Italy 521

the rights of every Roman citizen in the law courts, and, at the
same time, to social privileges like that of intermarriage. But
this citizenship did not entitle them to vote. In distant com-
munities, however, no one felt the lack of this privilege, for in
order to vote it was necessary to go to Rome. Cities and com-
munities controlled by Rome in this way were called " allies." .
The protection of the powerful Roman State in carrying on
business and commerce was of itself a very valuable advan-
tage to the allies. They were therefore willing to place their
troops entirely at the disposal of Rome, and also all their deal-
ings with foreign peoples; for they still had full control of their
own local internal affairs, except those of the army! In all this
Rome wisely granted the different cities very different rights,
and laid upon them highly varied restrictions. Thus no two
cities were likely to feel the same grievances or make common
cause against Roman rule of Italy.

Rome had, however, gradually annexed a good deal of terri- 827. Com-
tory to pay her war expenses and to supply her increasing num- enjoying full
bers of citizens with land. Her own full citizens thus occupied ^°^^" ^***'
about one sixth of the territory of Italy. It consisted chiefly of
the region between the Apennine Mountains and the sea, from
Caere on the north to Capua and Cumae on the south (see
map, p. 484). It likewise included some important areas in
the Apennines and on the Adriatic coast. It was furthermore
Rome's policy to sprinkle Roman colonies through the territory
of the allies. All Italy was thus more or less dotted with com-
munities of Roman citizens. By these wise measures Rome
gained and kept control of Italy.

Rome thus brought into a kind of unity what we may gee- 828. Lack
graphically call Italy; but an examination of its population will unity in* Italy:

readily show us how far Italy really was from beine: a nation, diversity of
-' ■' -^ o 7 language

even though controlled by Rome. Besides the Gauls, whose
territory in the Po valley had not yet been taken over by the
Romans, were the conquered Etruscans, who occupied a large
part of northern Italy. In the central region were the Latins

522

Ancient Times

829. Lack
of national
unity in Italy:
no common
traditions

830. Italy
to become
Latin in
speech,
Greek in
civilization

and the other Italic tribes. These tribes all spoke related dia-
lects, which were, however, so different that no one tribe could
understand any of the others. Finally, in the South were the
Greek cities. There was therefore no common language in
Italy, even among the Indo-Europeans, and this created a situ-
ation very different from that in Greece.

Neither did the peoples of Italy possess any common literary
inheritance such as the Greeks had in the Homeric poems.
Nothing in their history, like the Trojan War in that of the
Greeks (§ 411), had ever given them common traditions.
Roman organization had created a kind of United States of
Italy, which might after a long time slowly merge into a nation.
Meantime these peoples, of course, had no feeling of patriotism
toward Rome. Speaking different languages, so that they did
not understand one another when they met, they long remained
quite distinct.

In language the future nation was to be Latin, the tongue
of the ruling city ; geographically it comprised Italy ; politically
it was Roman.^ When we consider Rome from the point of
view of civilization^ however, we are obliged to add a fourth
name. For as time went on, Italy was to become in civilization
more and more Greek. The Greek cities extended as far north
as the plains of Campania, where Rome had early taken Capua,
in size the second city of Italy. In the days of the war with
Pyrrhus and after, the Roman soldiers had beheld with v/onder
and admiration the beautiful Greek temples in such cities as
Paestum (Fig. 219) and Tarentum. Here for the first time they
saw also fine theaters, and they must have attended Greek plays,
of which they understood litde or nothing. But the races and
athletic games in the handsome stadium of such a Greek city
required no interpretation in order to be understood by the
sturdy Roman soldiers.

1 Compare the similar application of three names to our own country. Politi-
cally we are the United States, geographically we are commonly called America,
while our language is English.

The Supremacy of the Roman Republic in Italy 523

In southern Italy the Romans had taken possession of the
western fringe of the great Hellenistic world, whose wonderful
civilization we have already studied (Chap. XXI). The Romans
at once felt the superiority of this new world of cultivated life,
which they had entered in southern Italy. When a highborn
Roman family like that of the Scipios wished to have carved a
beautiful sarcophagus (stone coffin) for their father, they em-
ployed a Greek sculptor from the South (headpiece, p. 520). At
the same time
the temples of
Rome began to
be laid out on
an oblong ground
plan, like those
of the Greeks,
and no longer on
a square ground
plan like those
of the Etruscans.
As Roman power
expands we shall
see this conquest
of the Romans
by Greek civilization making greater and greater progress-
It was as yet chiefly in commerce and in business that Greek
influences were evident. Greek merchants from the Southern
cities now enjoyed Roman protection when they traded in
Rome. Greek silver money appeared in greater quantities after
the capture of the Greek cities. Copper coins were no longer
sufficient for Roman business, and not long after the fall of
Tarentum, in 268 B.C. (§ 824), Rome issued her first silver coin
(Fig. 235). Just as Athens had once done (§ 460), so Rome
now began to feel the influence of money, and a moneyed class,
largely merchants, arose. They were not manufacturers, as at
Athens, and Rome never became a great industrial center.

Fig, 235. A Roman Denarius of Silver

After the capture of the Greek cities of southern
Italy, the Romans began the coinage of silver
(268 B.C.) (see § 832). The large and inconvenient
as (Fig. 233, B) was no longer necessary for large
payments, and it was thereafter reduced in size
to one sixth. Silver was then used for all large
transactions. On the value of this coin see § 832

831. Early
evidences of
Greek art and
architecture
in Rome

832. Greek
influence on
commerce
and coinage
of silver at
Rome ; rise
of moneyed
class

524

Ancient Times

833. Com-
mercial
expansion
of Rome
seaward

834. Early
mercantile
successes of
the Semites,
and the foun-
dation of
Carthage

Section 77. Rome and Carthage as
Commercial Rivals

The old policy of agricultural expansion (§ 814) had slowly
brought Rome the leadership within Italy. A new policy of
commercial expansion was to bring her into conflict with the
Mediterranean world outside of Italy. The farmers had looked
no farther than the shores of Italy, but the transactions of the
Roman merchants reached out beyond those shores. Roman
ships issuing from the Tiber entered a triangular inclosure of
the Mediterranean, called the Etruscan Sea. The sides of the
triangle were formed by Corsica and Sardinia on the west and
Italy on the east, while on the south the bottom of the triangle
was formed by Sicily and the Carthaginian coast of Africa. A
glance at the map (I, p. 552) shows us how Rome and Carthage
faced each other across this triangular sea, where both were
now carrying on extensive business.

It was indeed a dangerous rival which now confronted Rome
across the Etruscan Sea. In the veins of the Carthaginians
flowed the blood of those hardy desert mariners of Arabia, the
Semitic caravaneers (§ 137) who had made the market places
of Babylon the center of ancient Eastern trade two thousand
years before Rome ever owned a ship. The fleets of their
Phoenician ancestors had coursed the Mediterranean in the
days when the Stone Age barbarians of Italy were eagerly
looking for the merchant of the East and his metal implements
(§ 328). While Rome was an obscure trading village on the
Tiber, and before the Greeks ever entered these waters, the
Phoenician merchants, the earliest explorers of the western
Mediterranean, had perceived the advantageous position of the
commanding projection where the African coast thrusts out
toward Sicily. Here, on the northern edge of the region now
called Tunis, they had planted the city which had become the
commercial queen of the western Mediterranean and the most
powerful rival of Rome (map I, p. 552).

The Supremacy of the Roman Republic in Italy 525

This advantageous situation gave Carthage unrivaled com- 835. Canha-
mercial opportunities. Gradually, as her trade carried her in pan^sion^n
both directions, she had gained the coast on both sides — Africa and
eastward to the frontiers of the Greek city of Cyrene, and
westward to the Atlantic. Her merchants absorbed southern
Spain, with its profitable silver mines, and they gained control
of the import of British tin by way of the Strait of Gibraltar.
Outside of this strait their settlements extended northward
along the coast of Spain and southward along the Atlantic
coast of Africa to the edge of the Sahara. In this direction
Hanno, one of their fearless captains, explored the coast of
Africa as far as Guinea (§ 747, and map I, p. 552).

It was only the incoming of the Greeks (§§ 440-441) which 836. Cartha-
had prevented the Carthaginians from taking possession of the ^'"n^^ the^"
Mediterranean islands upon which their splendid harbor looked western Med-

^ ^ iterranean

out. They usually held a large part of Sicily, the west end of islands
which was almost visible from the housetops of Carthage.
They planted their colonies in the islands of Sardinia and
Corsica, and they had ports in the Balearic Islands, between
Sardinia and Spain. They closed the Strait of Gibraltar and
the ports of the islands to ships from all other cities. Foreign
ships intruding in these waters were promptly rammed and
sunk by Carthaginian warships.

Unlike Rome, the military power of Carthage, supported by 837. Lack
the profits from trade, was built up entirely on a basis of money, sold^iers" t
with which, as long as she prospered, she could support a large ^o^^^g^cial
mercenary army. She had no farmers cultivating their own prosperity
land, from whom she could draw an army of citizen-soldiers as cenaiy army
did Rome. The rich and fertile region of Tunis just south of
Carthage had indeed been taken by the Carthaginians from its
native owners. Here the merchant princes of the city developed
large and beautiful estates, worked by slaves ; but such lands,
supporting no small farmers, furnished no troops for the army.

This was a serious weakness in the organization of the Car- 838. Cartha-
thaginian state. The rulers of the city never trusted the army, s^ian tate

$26 Ancient Times

made up as it was of foreigners, and they always felt some dis-
trust even toward their own generals, although they were, of
course, bom Carthaginians. The fear lest the generals should
endeavor to make themselves kings of Carthage caused much
friction between the government and the Carthaginian com-
manders, and was frequently a cause of weakness to the nation.
Although there were two elective magistrates called Judges
at the head of the State, Carthage was really governed by a
group of merchant nobles, a wealthy aristocracy whose mem-
bers formed a Council in complete control. They were what
the Greeks called an oligarchy (§ 6i8); but they were energetic
and statesmanlike rulers. Centuries of shrewd guidance on their
part made Carthage a great state, far exceeding in power any
of the Greek states that ever arose, not excluding Athens.

839. Car- But Carthage remained in civilization an oriental power.
civUkatlon Wherever her works of art are dug up to-day, they show all

the earlier limitations of oriental art, and seem to have been
little influenced by the Greeks. Only in Sicily did Carthaginian
merchants yield to Greek influence, take up coinage, and issue
silver money. In Carthage herself they retained the old oriental
commercial use of bars of precious metal (§ 189). As her busi-
ness grew, however, her merchants found it necessary to have
some convenient medium of exchange, and they issued leathern
money, the earliest predecessor of paper money, stamped with
the seal of the State, guaranteeing its value. In literature their
great explorer Hanno (§ 835) wrote an account of his explo-
ration of the Atlantic coast of Africa ; and Mago, one of their
statesmen, who organized and developed the great farming dis-
trict of Tunis, wrote a treatise on agriculture, which the Roman
Senate had translated into Latin. It became the standard book
on agriculture in Italy.

840. The city In matters of household equipment and city building the
o C age Carthaginians were quite the equals of the Greeks. The city

of Carthage itself was large and splendid (Fig. 239). It was in
area three times as large as Rome. Behind wide docks and

The Supremacy of the Roman Republic in Italy 527

extensive piers of masonry, teeming with ships and merchan-
dise, the city spread far inland, with spacious markets and busy
manufacturing quarters humming with industry. Beyond the
dwellings of the poorer craftsmen and artisans rose the stately
houses of the wealthy merchants, with rich and sumptuous trop-
ical gardens. Around the whole swept imposing walls and
massive fortifications, inclosing the entire city and making its
capture almost an impossibility. Behind the great city, outside
the walls, stretched a wide expanse of waving palm groves and
tropical plantations, dotted with the luxurious country houses
of the splendid commercial lords of Carthage, who were to lead
the coming struggle with Rome.

Back in the days of the Latin war (ended 338 B.C.), or a 841. Early
little before, when the Roman merchants were still doing a J^r^Ttierarfd
small business, they had been willing that the Senate should J^^ growing
make a treaty with Carthage, drawing lines which the ships of between
neither side should cross. Indeed, about the middle of the Sam- and Rome
nite Wars the Roman Senate had made a second treaty with
Carthage (306 B.C.), in which it was agreed that no Roman
ships would enter the harbors of Sicily and no Carthaginian
ships should trade in the ports of Italy. The capture of the
Greek cities of Italy by the Romans had left the Greeks of
Sicily to face the power of Carthage entirely alone. In times
past they had done this with great success (§ 780), but now,
unable to unite against Carthage, they were slowly yielding,
and the Carthaginians were steadily pushing eastward and ab-
sorbing Sicily. The merchants of Italy looked over at the busy
harbors of Sicily, where so much profitable trade was going
on, and it filled them with growing impatience that they
were not permitted to do business there. With increasing vex-
ation they realized that Rome had gained the supremacy of
Italy and pushed her frontiers to the southernmost tip of
the peninsula, only to look across and find that the merchant
princes of Carthage had made the western Mediterranean a
Carthaginian sea.

528

Ancient Times

842. Danger
to Rome in
the threat-
ened loss of
the Strait
of Messina

843. War
strength of
the Romans

844. Roman
improve-
ments in
arms and
tactics

Indeed, Carthage was gaining a position which might cut off
Rome from communication with even her own ports on the
Adriatic side of Italy. To reach them, Roman ships must pass
through the Strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily. The
advance of Carthage in Sicily might enable her at any time to
seize the Sicilian city of Messina and close this strait to Roman
ships. We can understand the dread with which Italian mer-
chants looked southward, thinking of the day when Cartha-
ginian warships in the harbor at Messina would stop all traffic
between the west coast of Italy and the Adriatic.

The Roman Senate without doubt shared these apprehen-
sions. Many a Roman senator must have asked himself the
question, What would be Rome's chances of success in a
struggle with the mighty North-African commercial empire?
Rome had little or no navy. The Roman army had been
barely able to maintain itself against a modem Hellenistic
commander like Pyrrhus. The ancient regulation drawing the
soldiers only from among the owners of land had formerly
limited the size of the army, but it was greatly increased in size
by the admission of the new class of men having property in
money (§ 832). The introduction of pay for citizens in the army
had also increased the possible length of military service among
a people still chiefly made up of farmers obliged to return home
to plow, sow, and reap. The Romans could thus put a citizen
army of over three hundred thousand men into the field. Besides
the troops made up of Roman citizens, the principle was adopted
of having each army include also about an equal number of
troops drawn from the allies. This plan, therefore, doubled
the number of available troops. The Roman army conse-
quently far exceeded in size any army ever organized in the
Mediterranean world.

In arms and tactics the Romans had been able to make
some improvements in the Hellenistic art of war (§ 681).
The spear was now employed by the Romans only as the
battle opened, when it was hurled into the ranks of the enemy

The Supremacy of the Roman Republic in Italy 529

at short range. After this the battle
was fought by the Romans with
short swords, which were much
more easily handled at close quar-
ters than long spears (Fig. 236).
At the same time the Romans had
likewise improved the phalanx,
which we remember had thus far
been a massive unit, possessing as
a whole no flexibility (§ 637). It
had no joints. The Romans gave
it joints and flexibility by cutting
it up in both directions; that is,
lengthwise and crosswise.

They divided the phalanx length-
wise into three divisions, one form-
ing the front, one the middle, and
one the rear (Fig. 237). Each divi-
sion was about six men deep, and
there was only a narrow space be-
tween the divisions. The front divi-
sion was made up of the young and
vigorous troops, while the older men
were placed in the other two divi-
sions. If the steady old troops be-
hind saw that a gap was being
made in the front division, it was
the business of the second division
to advance at once and fill the
gap. This made it necessary to
cut up the divisions crosswise, into
short sections, so that a section
could advance without carrying the
whole division forward. Such a
section of a division had a front

^..--- :-v-^:^.^j-^^

Fig. 236. A Roman Sol-
dier OF THE Legion

The figure of the soldier is
carved upon a tombstone,
erected in his memory by
his brother. His offensive
weapons are hisspear(///«w),
which he holds in his extended
right hand with point upward,
and his heavy short sword
{gladius), which he wears
girded high on his right side
(see § 844). As defensive
equipment he has a helmet,
a leathern corselet stopping
midway between the waist and
knees, and a shield {^scutum)

845. The
Romans
cut up the
phalanx into
divisions and
maniples

53^ Ancient Times

about twenty men long, and being, as we have said, six men
deep, there were a hundred and twenty men in each section
of a division. These sections were called maniples. Each
maniple in advancing to fill a gap before it was like a foot-
ball " back " when he springs forward to stop, a gap in the
line before him. But it is important to notice that thus far
all three divisions of the phalanx were ijivariably kept to-
gether ; they were inseparable. The middle and rear divisions

Ttear Division
Middle Division
Front Division

A Maniple of the Front Division
Bear

=D cm

1=3

czn

C=2

CZ3

1=3

C=D

cza

1 ii II II il II II H II II 1

Front

Fig. 237. Plan of a Roman Threefold Line of Battle with
Detail of a Single Maniple above it

Here we see the once solid and indivisible phalanx of the Greeks
broken up into three divisions lengthwise (lower diagram), — a front,
middle, and rear division, — and likewise cut up crosswise into short sec-
tions (maniples). In the front and middle divisions these maniples were
six men deep and twenty men long (see upper diagram) and half as long
in the rear division. These sections (maniples) were so placed that the
openings between them did not coincide, but the maniples of the middle
division covered the openings, or joints, in the front division (§ 845)

were always only supports of the front division immediately be-
fore them. It had not yet occurred to the Romans to shift the
middle or rear division, as football backs are shifted, to fight fac-
ing in another direction, or to post them in another part of the
field, leaving the first division to fight unsupported (Fig. 237).
When a great Roman, during the struggle with Carthage, discov-
ered the possibility of thus shifting the middle and rear divisions
(§874), a new chapter in the art of war began.

For purposes of mustering and feeding an army, the Romans
divided it into larger bodies, called legions^ each containing

The Supremacy of the Roman Republic in Italy 531

usually forty-five hundred men, of whom three hundred were 846, Regions
cavalry, twelve hundred were light-armed troops, while the turions"
three thousand forming the body of the legion were the heavy-
armed men making up the three divisions just described. Each
maniple of one hundred and twenty men was divided into two
centuries of sixty men each, for a " century " soon ceased
always to contain a hundred men. Each century had a com-
mander called a centurion. A centurion and his century
roughly corresponded to our captain and his company.

Notwithstanding these improvements, the Romans did not 847. Lack of
at first see the importance of a commander in chief of long coSTmandrng
experience — a man who made warfare his calling and had &^"^^^^^
become a professional military leader like the Hellenistic com-
manders (§ 630). Hence the Romans intrusted their armies
without hesitation to the command of their consuls, who as
presidents of the republic had often never had any experience
in military leadership. Moreover, the consuls might be leading
their troops just on the eve of battle, and find themselves
deprived of command by the expiration of their term of office.
In the Samnite Wars this difficulty had shown the Romans the
necessity of extending a consul's military power under such
circumstances. When this was done he was called a proconsul.
But the Romans were still without professional generals like
Xenophon (§ 630). At the same time the introduction of pay
for officers and soldiers had made extended service possible,
and an experienced body of lower officers such as the centu-
rions had grown up.

In military discipline the Romans surpassed all other peoples 848. Roman
of ancient times ; for even among the Greek troops there was aid^'JheTorti-
great lack of discipline. We hear of a Roman father who fi^d camp
ordered his son to be executed in the presence of the army,
because the young man had, in disobedience of orders, accepted
single combat with an enemy and slain him. Even an ex-consul,
having won a victory after receiving orders from the Dictator
not to give battle, was condemned to death by the Dictator as

532 Ancient Times

the legal consequence of disobedience to a superior. It was
only with the greatest difficulty that he was saved by his influ-
ential friends. In accordance with the strict system maintained
in all their operations it was the invariable practice of a Roman
army when it halted to construct a square fortified camp, sur-
rounded by a ridge of earth bearing a stockade of wooden posts
driven into the crest of the ridge. This camp was a descendant
of the old prehistoric pile village of northern Italy (Fig. 225).

QUESTIONS

Section '](i. How much time elapsed from the final subjection
of Latium to Roman leadership of all Italy? How did Rome govern
the defeated cities of Italy.? How much Italian territory was occu-
pied by Roman citizens? Where was it? Where did Rome place
her colonies? Was Italy a unified nation? Why not? Mention the
races and languages of Italy. What was the future language to be?
Mention some early influences of Greek art and architecture in Italy ;
of Greek business methods in Italy. What financial changes took
place at Rome as a result ?

Section Tj, Had agriculture carried the Romans outside of
Italy? Was commerce now to do so? Into what triangular sea does
the Tiber flow? What great commercial rival of Rome lay on the
same sea? Who were the ancestors of the Carthaginians? What
had they achieved in business? What region did Carthage com-
mercially control ? How did she treat ships of other peoples in this
region? Describe the military organization of Carthage. Had she
any citizen-soldiers? What was the character of the Carthaginian
State ? of Carthaginian civilization ? Describe the city and surround-
ings. What was happening to the Greeks of Sicily? In whose
hands was the western Mediterranean commercially? Describe the
danger at Messina.

Tell about the war strength of the Romans by land. Describe
their improvement of the phalanx. What was the purpose of the
legion ? How large was it ? What was a centurion ? Had the Romans
any commanding generals of long experience? Did they have any
professional soldiers? What can you say about the discipline of
a Roman army? What did the Romans do when they camped?
Where had the plan of the Roman camp originated ?

CHAPTER XXIV

THE ROMAN CONQUEST OF THE WESTERN
MEDITERRANEAN WORLD

Section 78. The Struggle with Carthage
Sicilian War, or First Punic War

the

Whatever might be the risks involved in a struggle with
Carthage, the Romans were soon convinced that it could not
be avoided. During a siege of Messina at the hands of the
Syracusans, one party in the besieged place called in the aid
of the Romans, while another party appealed to Carthage.
The result was that a Carthaginian garrison quickly occupied
the citadel of Messina, and the Carthaginians were then in
command of the Strait of Messina. The Romans had long
hesitated, but now they took the memorable step, and a Roman
army, responding to the appeal of Messina, left the soil of

849. Open-
ing of the
Sicilian War
(First Punic
War) with
Carthage at
Messina
(264 B.C.)

Note. The above fragment of a wall-painting at Pompeii shows us a Roman
warship, seemingly in battle, for the wreck of another warship is visible at the
left. Notice the two steering oars at each side of the stern — a device found on
Nile ships three thousand years earlier (Fig. 41). The rudder had not yet devel-
oped from these steering oars. The Romans ascribed their success, in spite of
inexperience, against the Carthaginians to a new boarding grappler, which they
invented and called a "crow" {corvus). It consisted of a heavy upright timber,
which was made to fall over with the end on the enemy's rail, where an iron hook
attached to the end of the "crow" grappled and held the opposing craft until the
Romans could climb over into it. In the hand-to-hand fighting which followed,
the sturdy Romans more than made up for their inexperience in seamanship.

533

534

Ancient Times

850. The
Romans
build a fleet

851. Roman
victory and
disaster at sea

852. Final
naval victory
of the
Romans
(241 B.C.)

Italy and crossed the sea for the first time in Roman history.
The struggle with Carthage had begun (264 B.C.).

An alliance with Syracuse soon gave the Romans possession
of eastern Sicily, but they were long unable to make much
progress into the central and western portion of the island.
The chief reason for this was the lack of a strong war fleet.
The Romans, therefore, adopting a naval policy like that of
Themistocles (§ 506), determined to build a fleet. The Senate
rapidly pushed the building of the new fleet, and in the fifth
year of the war it put to sea for the first time. It numbered
a hundred and twenty battleships, of which a full hundred
were large, powerful vessels with five banks of oars.

In spite of inexperience, the Roman fleet was victorious in
two successive battles off the coast of Italy. It looked as if
the war would be quickly over. The Senate, however, finding
that the legions made little progress in Sicily, determined to
invade Africa and strike Carthage at home. The invasion was
at first very successful, but its progress was unwisely interfered
with by the Senate, who recalled one of the consuls with many
of the troops. The result was that the remaining consul, with
his reduced army, was disastrously defeated. Then one Roman
fleet after another was destroyed by heavy storms at sea, and
one of them was badly defeated by the Carthaginians. The
Romans thus lost their newly won command of the sea, and
were long unable to make any progress in the war.

Year after year the struggle dragged on, while Hamilcar
Barca, the Carthaginian commander, was plundering the coasts
of Italy with his fleet. The treasury at Rome was empty,
and the Romans were at the end of their resources ; but by
private contributions they succeeded in building another fleet,
which put to sea in 242 B.C. with two hundred battleships
of five banks of oars. The Carthaginian fleet was defeated
and broken up (241 B.C.), and as a result the Carthaginians
found themselves unable to send reenforcements across the
sea to their army in Sicily.

Roman Conquest of the Western Mediterra7iean $ 3 5

They were therefore at last obliged to accept hard terms of 853. Peace at
peace at the hands of the Romans. The Carthaginians were sicUian Wa/
to give up Sicily and the neighboring islands to Rome, and ^^^^ b-c) .
to pay the Romans as war damages the sum of thirty-two
hundred talents, over three and a half million dollars, within
ten years. Thus in 241 B.C., after more than twenty-three years
of fighting, the first period of the struggle between Rome and
Carthage ended with the victory of Rome.

The struggle had been carried on till both contestants were 854. Some
completely exhausted. Both had learned much in the art of Sicilian War
war, and Rome for the first time had become a sea power.
At the same time she had taken a step which forever changed
her future and altered her destiny ; for the first time she held
territory outside of Italy, and from this step she was never
able to withdraw. It has been compared with the action of
the United States in taking Porto Rico and the Philippines;
for in gaining interests and responsibilities across the sea, a
nation is at once thrown into conflict with other powers having
similar interests, and this conflict of interests never reaches an
end, but leads from one war to another.

Section 79. The Hannibalic War (Second Punic
War) and the Destruction of Carthage

Both the rivals now devoted themselves to increasing their 855. Roman
strength, nor did Rome hesitate to do so at the expense of sa?dhfia°and
Carthage. Taking advantage of a revolt among the hired Car- Corsica and
thaginian troops in Sardinia, the Romans accepted an invitation the Po valley
from these mercenaries to invade both Sardinia and Corsica;
and in spite of protests from Carthage, only three years after
the settlement of peace Rome took possession of these two
islands. Rome now possessed three island outposts against
Carthage. Some years later the Romans were involved in a
serious war by an invasion of the Gauls from the Po valley.
The Gauls were disastrously defeated, and their territory was

53^

Ancient Times

seized by the Romans without granting the Gauls any form of
citizenship. Thus Roman power was extended northward to
the foot of the Alps, and the entire peninsula from the Alps
southward was held by Rome (map II, p. 552).

To offset this increase of Roman power and to compensate
for the loss of the three large islands, the Carthaginian leaders
turned toward Spain. Here still dwelt the hardy descendants
of the Late Stone Age Europeans of the West (§ 325). Hamil-
car, the Carthaginian general, planned to secure the wealth of
their silver mines, to enlist the natives in the army, and thus
to build up a power able to meet that of Rome. He died
before the completion of his plans, but they were taken up
by his gifted son Hannibal, who extended Carthaginian rule
in Spain as far north as the Ebro River (map II, p. 552).
Although only twenty-four years of age, Hannibal was already
forming colossal plans for a bold surprise of Rome in her own
territory, which by its unexpectedness and audacity should crush
Roman power in Italy.

Rome, busily occupied in overthrowing the Gauls, had been
unable to interfere with the SpanisK enterprises of Carthage.
She had, however, secured an agreement that Carthage should
not advance northward beyond the Ebro River, To so bold
and resolute a leader as Hannibal such a stipulation was only
an opportunity for a frontier quarrel with Rome in Spain. In
the tremendous struggle which followed he was the genius
and the dominating spirit. It was a colossal contest between
the nation Rome and the man Hannibal. We may therefore
well call it the Hannibalic War.

While the Roman Senate was demanding that the leaders at
Carthage disavow his hostile acts, Hannibal, with a strong and
well-drilled army of about forty thousand men, was already
marching northward along the east coast of Spain (map, p. 538).
Several reasons led him to this course. He knew that since the
Sicilian war the defeated Carthaginian fleet would be unable to
protect his army if he tried to cross by water from Carthage and

Roman Conquest of the Western Mediterrmiean 537

to land in southern Italy. Moreover, his cavalry, over six thou-
sand strong, was much too numerous to be transported by sea.
In southern Italy, furthermore, he would have been met at once
by a hostile population, whereas in northern Italy there were the
newly conquered Gauls, burning for revenge on the Romans,
their conquerors. Hannibal intended to offer them an oppor-
tunity for that revenge by enlistment in his ranks. Moreover,
he had reports of dissatisfaction among the allies of Rome also,
and he believed that by an early victory in northern Italy he
could induce the allies to forsake Rome and join him in a war
for independence which would destroy Roman leadership in
Italy. For these reasons, while the Roman Senate was planning
to invade Spain and Africa, they found their own land suddenly
invaded by Hannibal from the north.

By clever maneuvering at the Rhone, Hannibal avoided the 859. Hanni-
Roman army, which had arrived there on its way to Spain. The the Roinans
crossing of the Rhone, a wide, deep, and swift river, with ele- an^^ieSs^his
phants and cavalry and the long detour to avoid the Romans army across
so delayed Hannibal that it was late autumn when he reached (218 b.c.)
the Alps (218 B.C.). Overwhelmed by snowstorms; struggling
over a steep and dangerous trail, sometimes so narrow that the
rocks had to be cut away to make room for the elephants;
looking down over dizzy precipices, or up to snow-covered
heights where hostile natives rolled great stones down upon
them, the discouraged army of Hannibal toiled on day after day,
exhausted, cold, and hungry. At every point along the strag-
gling line, where help was most needed, the young Carthaginian
was always present, encouraging and guiding his men. But
when they issued from the Alpine pass, perhaps Mt. Cenis,
into the upper valley of the Po, they had suffered such losses
that they were reduced to some thirty-four thousand men.

With this little army the dauntless Carthaginian youth had 860. inferior
entered the territory of the strongest military power of the time nibal's army
— a nation which could now call to her defense over seven hun- ^^ith^Rmnan
dred thousand men, citizens and allies. From this vast number resources

538

Ancient Times

86i. Supe-
riority of
Hstnnibal's
military
knowledge
over that of
the Roman
consuls

Rome could recruit army after army ; but Hannibal, on the other
hand, as long as Carthage did not control the sea, could expect
no reenforcements from home except through Spain. A military
success was necessary at once in order to arouse the hopes of
the Gauls and secure recruits from among them.

Hannibal, who was in close contact with a number of Greeks,
was thoroughly acquainted with the most highly developed

egium
Slyraciise

203 B.C****-:? E A

The Route and Marches of Hannibal from 218 to 203 b.c.

The dates indicate the progress of the march. During Hannibal's long

stay in southern Italy, he made many marches and local movements

not indicated in the above sketch. Indeed, we know very little about

many of his operations in this region

methods of warfare. The exploits of Alexander, who had died
a little over a century before Hannibal's invasion of Italy, were
familiar to him, and it is not impossible that the fascinating story
of Alexander's campaigns was read to the young Carthaginian
as he lay with his Greek companions around the camp fires in
Italy. Furthermore, we recall that Roman consuls, command-
ing the Roman armies, were simply magistrates like our mayors
or presidents, often without much more knowledge of handling

Roman Conquest of the Western Mediterranean 5 39

an army than has a city mayor in our time. Gifted with little
imagination, blunt and straightforward, brave and eager to meet
the enemy at once, the Roman consuls were no match for the
crafty young Carthaginian.

By skillful use of his cavalry, in which the Romans were 862. Hanni-
weak, Hannibal at once won two engagements in the Po valley, three vic-
The Gauls began to flock to his standards, but they were raw, ^°"^^
undisciplined troops. He was still outside the barrier of Roman
fortresses defending the Apennines, and this he must not fail
to pierce without delay. By early spring, therefore (217 B.C.),
amid fearful difficulties which would have broken the courage
of most commanders, Hannibal successfully passed the belt of
Roman strongholds blocking the roads through the Apennines.
Even after he had crossed the Amus, the Roman consul Flamin-
ius had no notion of the Carthaginian advance, though he soon
learned that the Carthaginians were between him and Rome.
Nevertheless, on the shores of Lake Trasimene, Hannibal easily
surprised the army of the unsuspecting consul on the march,
ambushed the legions both in front and rear, and cut to pieces
the entire Roman army, so that only a handful escaped and the
consul himself fell. But a few days' march from Rome, Hannibal
might now have advanced directly against the city ; but he had
no siege machinery (headpiece, p. 140), and his forces were not
numerous enough for the siege of so strong a fortress. More-
over, his cavalry, in which he was superior to the Romans,
would have been useless in a siege. He therefore desired an-
other victory in the hope that the allies of Rome would revolt
and join him in attacking the city.

Hannibal therefore marched eastward to the Adriatic coast, 863. A year
where he secured numerous horses, much needed by his cavalry, prepaStion^
and also found plentiful provisions, besides an opportunity to ^^^7-
drill his Gallic recruits. At this dangerous crisis the Romans
appointed a Dictator, a stable old citizen named Fabius, whose
policy was to wear out Hannibal by refusing to give battle and
by using every opportunity to harass the Carthaginians. This

540

Ancient Times

policy of caution and delay did not meet with popular favor at
Rome. The people called Fabius the Laggard {Cundator)^ a
name which ever afterward clung to him ; and the new consuls
elected for 216 b. c. were urged to take action and destroy the
Carthaginian army without more delay. They therefore re-
cruited an army of nearly seventy thousand men and pushed
southward toward the heel of the Italian peninsula to meet
Hannibal. The Carthaginian deftly outwitted them and, march-
ing to Cannae, captured the Roman supplies. The consuls
were then obliged to give battle or retire for more supplies.

Heavy Infantry Center

864. The

dispositions
at the battle
of Cannae

Cavalry

Cavalry M Heavy Infantry Center ■ Cavalry

6000
African
tnfanirif

6000
African
Infantry

Position of the tv/o armies as the
battle began
black = Carthaginians
shaded = Romans

Roman center surrounded after

the Roman cavalry was routed

and the two African divisions

were pushed forward

Plan of the Battle of Cannae (§§ 864-865)

With their fifty-five thousand heavy-armed infantry the consuls
were almost twice as strong as Hannibal, who had but thirty-
two thousand such troops. On the other hand, Hannibal had
about ten thousand horse against six thousand of the Roman
cavalry, while both armies were about equally strong in light-
armed troops. Varro, the Roman consul, had been merely a
successful business man at Rome. He drew up his heavy-armed
troops in a deep mass in the center, with a short front. Had
he spread them out, so that their superior numbers might
form a longer front than that of Hannibal, they might have
enfolded and outflanked the Carthaginian army. Both armies
divided their cavalry, that it might form the two wings. Instead
of massing all his heavy-armed troops in the center to meet the

(2l6 B.C)

Roman Conquest of the Western Mediterranean 541

great mass of the Roman center, Hannibal took out some twelve
thousand of his heavy-armed African infantry in two bodies of
six thousand each and stationed them in a deep column behind
each of his cavalry wings (plan A^ p. 540).

Hannibal's stronger cavalry put to flight the Roman horse 865. Hanni-
forming both wings. Then as his well-trained horsemen turned iates"he^*'
back to attack the heavy mass of the Roman center in the Roman armj

•' at the battle

rear, he knew that it was too late for the Romans, perceiving of Cannas
their danger, to retreat and escape, for they were caught be-
tween the Carthaginian center before them and the Carthagin-
ian cavalry behind them. Only the sides of the trap were open.
Then came a great moment in
the young Carthaginian's life.
With unerring judgment, just at
the proper instant, he gave the
orders which closed up the sides
of the trap he had so cleverly
prepared. The two bodies of
Africans which he had posted

behind the cavalry wings, on „ o r^

■' ^ ' Fig. 238. Carthaginian

each side, pushed quietly forward helmet picked up on the
till they occupied positions on Battlefield at Cann^
each side of the fifty-five thou-
sand brave Romans of the center, who were thus inclosed on
all sides (plan -5, p. 540). What ensued was simply a slaughter
of the doomed Romans, lasting all the rest of the day. When
night closed in the Roman army was annihilated. Ex-consuls,
senators, nobles, thousands of the best citizens of Rome had
fallen in this frightful battle. Every family in Rome was in
mourning. Of the gold rings worn by Roman knights as an
indication of their rank, Hannibal is reported to have sent a
bushel to Carthage. Even in modern times pieces of armor
have been picked up on the battlefield (Fig. 238).

Thus this masterful young Carthaginian, the greatest of
Semite generals, within two years after his arrival in Italy and

542

Ancient Times

before he was thirty years of age, had defeated his giant an-
tagonist in four battles and destroyed three of the opposing
armies. He might now count upon a revolt among the Roman
allies. Within a few years southern Italy, including the Greek
cities, and even Syracuse in Sicily forsook Rome and joined
Hannibal. Only some of the southern Latin colonies held out
against him. To make matters worse for Rome, immediately
after Cannae, Hannibal sent messengers to Macedonia, and one
of the later Philips then reigning there agreed to send help to
the Carthaginians in Italy.

In all this Hannibal was displaying the judgment and insight
of a statesman combined with amazing ability to meet the
incessant demands of the military situation. This required him
to lay out campaigns, to drill the inexperienced new recruits, to
insure supplies of food and fresh horses for his army, while at
the same time he was forced also to find the money with which
to pay his turbulent and dissatisfied mercenaries. In carrying out
all this work he was untiring, and his eye was everywhere. It
was no uncommon thing for some private soldier to wake in
the morning and find his young general sleeping on the ground
by his side. There was a consuming fire of desire in his soul
to save Carthage ; and now his glorious victories were drawing
together the foes of Rome in a great combination which he
believed would bring about the destruction of his country's
hated antagonist.

But opposing the burning zeal of a single gifted soul were
the dogged resolution, the ripe statesmanship, the unshaken
organization, and the seemingly inexhaustible numbers of the
Romans. It was a battle of giants for the mastery of the world ;
for the victor in this struggle would without any question be
the greatest power in the Mediterranean. Had the successors
of Alexander in the Hellenistic eastern Mediterranean discerned
the nature of this gigantic struggle in Italy, and been able to
combine against Rome, they might now have crushed her for-
ever (see map I, p. 448). But the Roman Senate, with clever

Roman Conquest of the Western Mediterranean 543

statesmanship, made an alliance with the Greeks, thus stirring
up a revolt in Greece against the Macedonians and preventing
them from furnishing help to Hannibal. In spite of Hannibal's
victories, the steadiness and fine leadership of the Roman Senate
held central Italy loyal to Rome. Although the Romans were
finally compelled to place arms in the hands of slaves and mere
boys, new armies were formed. With these forces the Romans
proceeded to besiege and capture the revolting allied cities one
after another. Even the clever devices of Archimedes during
a desperate siege (§ 742) did not save Syracuse from being
recaptured by the Romans (212 B.C.).

Capua likewise, the second city of Italy, which had gone 869. Hanni-
over to his cause, was besieged by the Romans in spite of all advance to^^^
Hannibal's efforts to drive them away. As a last hope he 5°"^^ ^"?

/ ^ the recapture

marched upon Rome itself, and with his bodyguard rode up to of Capua by

. , f . . , - the Romans

one of the gates of the great city, whose po\\er seemed so un- (211 b.c.)
broken. For a brief time the two antagonists faced each other,
and many a Roman senator must have looked over the walls
at the figure of the tremendous young Carthaginian who had
shaken all Italy as with an earthquake. But they were not to
be frightened into offers of peace in this way, nor did they
send out any message to him. His army was not large enough .
to lay siege to the greatest city of Italy, nor had he been able to
secure any siege machinery (§ 632), and he was obliged to
retreat without accomplishing anything. Capua was thereupon
captured by the Romans and punished without mercy.

The hitherto dauntless spirit of the young Carthaginian at 870. Hanni-
last began to feel the crushing weight of Roman confidence, forcements
When he had finally been ten years in Italy, he realized that intercepted

•' ■' -' and destroyed

unless powerful reenforcenents couid reach him, his cause was (207 b.c.)
hopeless. His brother Hasdrubal in Spain had gathered an
army and was now marching into Italy to aid him. At the
Metaurus River, in the region of Sentinum, where the fate
of Rome had once before been settled (§ 819), Hasdrubal
was met by a Roman army. He was completely defeated and

544

Ancient Times

slain (207 B.C.). To the senators waiting in keenest anticipation
at Rome the news of the victory meant the salvation of Italy
and the final defeat of an enemy who had all but accomplished
the destruction of Roman power. To Hannibal, anxiously await-
ing tidings of his brother and of the needed reenforcements,
the first announcement of the disaster and the crushing of his
hopes was the head of Hasdrubal hurled into the Carthaginian
camp by a Roman messenger.

For a few years more Hannibal struggled on in the southern
tip of Italy, the only territory remaining of all that he had cap-
tured. Meantime the Romans, taught by sad experience, had
given the command of their forces in Spain to Scipio, one of
the ablest of their younger leaders. He had routed the Car-
thaginians and driven them entirely out of Spain, thus cutting
off their chief supply both of money and of troops. In Scipio
the Romans had at last found a general, with the masterful qual-
ities which make a great military leader. He demanded of the
Senate that he be sent to Africa to invade the dominions of
Carthage as Hannibal had invaded those of Rome.

By 203 B.C. Scipio had twice defeated the Carthaginian forces
in Africa, and Carthage was forced to call Hannibal home. He
had spent fifteen years on the soil of Italy, and the great strug-
gle between the almost exhausted rivals was now to be decided
in Africa. At Zama, inland from Carthage, the final battle
of the war took place. Hannibal, having insufficient cavalry,
foresaw that his weak cavalry wings would be defeated by
Scipio's opposing heavy bodies of horsemen. . When, as he ex-
pected, the Roman cavalry wings disappeared in pursuit of his
own fleeing horsemen, the wings of both armies were cleared
away for one of those unexpected but carefully planned maneu-
vers by which the great Carthaginian had destroyed the Roman
army at Cannae. From behind his line Hannibal moved out two
divisions in opposite directions, elongating his own line beyond
the ends of the Roman line, which he intended to inclose on
either side. In football language, Hannibal had ordered his

Roman Conquest of the Western Mediterranean 545

backs to spread out and to execute a play around both the
Roman ends at once. The fate of two empires was trembling
in the balance as Hannibal's steel trap thus extended its jaws
on either side to enfold the Roman army.

But behind the Roman army there was a mind like that of 873. The
Hannibal. The keen eye of the Roman commander discovered moves of
the flash of moving steel behind the Carthaginian lines. He loSJan^yi".^
understood the movement and at once grasped the danger which tory at Zami
threatened his army. As a result of Cannas, Scipio had long
before abandoned all Roman tradition, and had taught his
front division to fight without the support of the rear divisions
behind them (§845). In football language again, he too had
learned to shift his backs and had taught the line to hold with-
out them. The shrewd young Roman commander therefore
gave his orders without hesitation. For the first time in history
the rear divisions behind the front of a Roman center left the
front division to fight alone. As quietly as on a parade march
they parted to the left and right and, marching behind the fight-
ing line in opposite directions, they took up their posts, extend-
ing the Roman front at either end where at first the cavalry
wings had been. When Hannibal's spreading divisions pushed
out beyond the Roman ends, where they were expected to carry
out their " around-the-end " movements, they found facing them
a Roman wall of steel, and the batde continued in two parallel
lines longer than before. The great Carthaginian had been
foiled at his own game by an equally great Roman. When the
Roman cavalry returned from their pursuit and fell on the
Carthaginian flank, Hannibal beheld his lines crumbling and
giving way in final and complete defeat.

In this great batde we see the conclusion of a long and re-
markable development in the art of war, from the wild disorder
of entirely undisciplined fighting (Fig. 88) to the formation
of a heavy phalanx of disciplined men, the earliest trained-
fighting team as it appeared in the Orient (Fig. 87). Then
in Europe, after Philip and Alexander, the deep phalanx as

546 Ancient Times

used by the Greeks was no longer regarded by the Romans
as a rigid, indivisible fighting unit, but it was broken up into a
fighting line in front and a group of shifting backs behind.
On the field of Zama, Scipio and Hannibal had advanced to a
new stage in the art of warfare, and had created what is now
known as " division tactics " — the art of manipulating an army
on the field in divisions shifted behind the line of battle as a
skillful football leader shifts his backs, trusting to the line to
hold while he does so.

The victory of Rome over Carthage made Rome the leading
power in the whole ancient world. In the treaty which followed
the battle of Zama, the Romans forced Carthage to pay ten
thousand talents (over $11,000,000) in fifty years and to sur-
render all her warships but ten triremes. But what was worse
she lost her independence as a nation, and according to the
treaty she could not make war anywhere without the consent
of the Romans. Although the Romans did not annex her
territory in Africa, Carthage had become a vassal state.

Hannibal had escaped after his lost battle at Zama. Although
we learn of his deeds chiefly through his enemies, the story
of his dauntless struggle to save his native country, begun
when he was only twenty-four and continued for twenty years,
reveals him as one of the greatest and most gifted leaders in
all history — a lion-hearted man, so strong of purpose that
only a great nation like Rome could have crushed him. Indeed,
Rome now compelled the Carthaginians to expel Hannibal, and,
a man of fifty, he went into exile in the East, where we shall
find him stirring up the successors of Alexander to combine
against Rome.

Such was the commercial ability of the Carthaginians that
they continued to prosper even while paying the heavy tribute
with which Rome had burdened them. Meantime, the new mis-
tress of the western Mediterranean kept an anxious eye on her
old rival. Even the stalwart Romans remembered with uneasi-
ness the invasion of Hannibal. Cato, a famous old-fashioned

Roman Conquest of the Western Mediterranean 547

senator, was so convinced that Carthage was still a danger to
Rome that he concluded all his speeches in the Senate with the
words, " Carthage must be destroyed." For over fifty years
more the merchants of Carthage were permitted to traffic in
the western Mediterranean, and then the iron hand of Rome
was laid upon the doomed city for the last time. To defend
herself against the Numidians behind her, Carthage was
finally obliged to begin war against them. This step, which

Fig. 239. The Hakbors of Carthage as they are To-day

Of the city destroyed by the Romans almost nothing has survived. It
was rebuilt under Julius Caesar, but, as we see here, very little of this
later city has survived. Thorough and systematic excavation would
probably recover many valuable remains of ancient Carthaginian civili-
zation, of which we know so little

the Romans had long been desiring, was a violation of the
treaty with Rome. The Senate seized the opportunity at
once and Carthage was called to account. In the three years'
war (Third Punic War) which followed, the beautiful city was
captured and completely destroyed (146 B.C.) (see Fig. 239).
Its territory was taken by Rome and called the Province of
Africa. A struggle of nearly one hundred and twenty years
had resulted in the annihilation of Rome's only remaining
rival in the West (see map III, p. 552).

548

Ancient Times

Thus the fourfold rivalry in the western Mediterranean,
which had long included the Etruscans and Carthaginians, the
Greeks and the Romans, had ended with the triumph of the
once insignificant village above the prehistoric market on
the Tiber (§ 784). Racially, the western wing of the Indo-
European line had proved victorious over that of the Semite
line (Fig. 112). The western Mediterranean world was now
under the leadership of a single great nation, the Romans, as
the eastern Mediterranean world had once been under the
leadership of the Macedonians. We must now turn back and
follow the dealings of Rome with the Hellenistic-oriental world
of the eastern Mediterranean, which we left (Chap. XXI)
after it had attained the most highly refined civilization ever
achieved by ancient man (see map II, p. 448).

QUESTIONS

Section 78. At what point did Rome and Carthage come into
conflict? How? When? Had the Romans any sea power? How
did they get it? Give a brief statement of the course of the Sicilian
War. What were the main results ?

Section 79. What territory did the Romans gain shortly after
the Sicilian War? Whither did Carthage go for new resources?
Who provoked the ensuing war ? Describe Hannibal's plan of cam-
paign in full. Recount his march into Italy. How did his numbers
compare with those of Rome? What can you say of his military
knowledge? Describe his first three encounters with the Romans.
Where did he then go ? What did the Romans do ? Draw two plans,
and tell the story of the battle of Cannae. What political moves did
Hannibal then make? How did the Romans meet them? What
course did Rome follow toward her revolting allies ? What happened
at Capua? What did Hannibal's brother do?

What were the Romans meantime doing in Spain ? Who was the
Roman leader there? Recount the battle of Zama. What advance
in the art of warfare was shown there ? What were the main results
of the Hannibalic War? What became of Hannibal? Recount the
destruction of Carthage. How long had the struggle between Rome
and Carthage lasted ? Who was now leader of the West ?

CHAPTER XXV

WORLD DOMINION AND DEGENERACY

Section 8o. The Roman Conquest of the Eastern
Mediterranean World

While the heirs of Alexander were carrying on their cease-
less feuds, plots, wars, and alliances in the eastern Mediter-
ranean, as we have seen them doing down to about 200 B.C.
(Chap. XX), the vast power of Rome had been slowly rising
in the West. The serious consequences of Rome's growth, and,
especially of her expansion beyond the sea, were now evident.
The Roman Senate could not allow any state on the Mediter-
ranean to develop such strength as to endanger Rome in the
way Carthage had done during the Hannibalic War. For this
and other reasons the western giant was now to overshadow
the whole Hellenistic world of the East, and finally to draw the

Note. The relief above, found in the Theater of Marcellus, built by Augustus
(§ 994), gives us a very vivacious glimpse of a battle between gladiators and wild
beasts, just as the Romans saw it. The gladiators in this combat wear only a
tunic and have no defensive armor except a helmet and a shield. Note the ex-
pression of pain on the face of the gladiator at the left, whose arm is being
lacerated by the lion.

549

879. Coming
conflict be-
tween the
western and
the eastern
(Hellenistic)
Mediterra-
nean world

5 so Ancient Times

three great states of Alexander's heirs into his grasp. Let us see
what the reasons for the first collision were (see map 11, p. 448).

880. Causes Hannibal had induced Macedonia to combine with him
war with against Rome (§ 866). This hostile step could not be over-
Macedon looked by the Romans after the Hannibalic War. Philip, the

Macedonian king, was a gifted ruler and an able military com-
mander like his great ancestor, the father of Alexander the
Great, a hundred and fifty years earlier. The further plans
of this later Philip filled the Senate with anxiety. For he
had arranged a combination between himself and Antiochus
the Great (the third of the name), the Seleucid king of Syria.
By this alliance the two were to divide the dominions of Egypt
between them. Because of what he had already done, and
also because of what he would do if allowed to go on and
gain greatly increased power, the Romans were now obliged to
turn eastward and crush Philip of Macedon (m.ap II, p. 448).

881. Battle of The Greek states had no reason to support the rule of
(i97°B.c.);^ Macedonia over them; Antiochus was too busy seizing the
Macedon a Asiatic territory of Egypt to send any help to Macedonia ; and
Rome hence a year after the close of the Hannibalic War, Philip

found himself without strong allies, face to face with a Roman
army. By his unusual skill as a commander he evaded the
Roman force for some time. But in the end the massive Mace-
donian phalanx, bristling with long spears, was obliged to meet
the onset of the Roman legions, with their deadly short swords
and the puzzling divisions behind the lines shifting into unex-
pected positions which the phalanx was not flexible enough
to meet. On the field of Cynoscephalae (dog's heads), in
197 B.C., the Macedonian army was disastrously routed, and
the ancient realm of Alexander the Great became a vassal state
under Rome. As allies of Rome, the Greek states were then
granted their freedom by the Romans.

This war with Macedon brought the Romans into conflict
with Antiochus the Great, the Seleucid king, who held a large
part of the vast empire of Persia in Asia. For Antiochus now

World Dominion and Degeneracy 551

endeavored to profit by Philip's defeat and to seize some of 882. Roman
Philip's former possessions which the Romans had declared theSeleucid
free. A war with this powerful Asiatic empire was not a matter Empire re-

^ _ _ ^ ^ sultmg from

which the Romans could view without great anxiety. Moreover,
Hannibal, expelled from Carthage (§ 876), was now in Greece
with Antiochus, advising him. In spite of the warnings and
urgent counsels of Hannibal, Antiochus threw away his oppor-
tunities in Greece until the Roman legions maneuvered him
back into Asia Minor, whither the Romans followed him, and
there the great power of the West for the first time confronted
the motley forces of the ancient Orient as marshaled by the
successor of Persia in Asia (see map II, p. 448).

The conqueror of Hannibal at Zama was with the Roman
army to counsel his brother, another Scipio, consul for the year,
and therefore in command of the legions. There was no hope
for the undisciplined troops of the Orient when confronted by the voluntary
a Roman army under such masters of the new tactics as these of Egypt
two Scipios. At Magnesia, the West led by Rome overthrew (^°^^*^-)
the East led by the dilatory Antiochus (190 B.C.), and the lands
of Asia Minor eastward to the Halys River submitted to Roman
control. Under the ensuing treaty Antiochus was not permitted
to cross the Halys River westward or to send a warship west
of the same longitude. Within twelve years (200 to 189 B.C.)
Roman arms had reduced to the condition of vassal states two
of the three great empires which succeeded Alexander in the
East — Macedonia and Syria (see map III, p. 448). As for
Egypt, the third, friendship had from the beginning existed
between her and Rome. A little over thirty years after a
Roman army had first appeared in the Hellenistic world, Egypt
acknowledged herself a vassal of Rome (168 B.C.).

Although defeated, the eastern Mediterranean world long 884. Anni-
continued to give the Romans much trouble. The quarrels of Macldon^
the eastern states among themselves were constantly carried ^"^ ^^^ ^ub-

jection of

to Rome tor settlement. It became necessary to destroy Mace- the Greeks
donia as a kingdom and to make her a Roman province. At

S5^

Ancient Times

885. The
rapidity of
the Roman
conquests

886. Rome's
great task
of imperial
organization

the same time Greek sympathy for Macedonia was made the
pretext for greater severity toward the Greeks. Many were
carried off to Italy as hostages, and among them no less than
a thousand noble and educated Achaeans were brought to Rome.
When in spite of this the Achaean League (§ 725) rashly brought
on a war with Rome, the Romans applied the same methods
which they were using against Carthage. The same year
which saw the destruction of Carthage witnessed the burn-
ing of Corinth also (146 B.C.). Greek liberty was of course
ended, and while a city of such revered memories as Athens
might be given greater freedom (§ 726), those Greek states
whose careers of glorious achievement in civilization we have
followed, were reduced to the condition of Roman vassals.

It was little more than three generations since the Republic
on the Tiber took the fateful step of beginning the conflict with
Carthage for the leadership of the West. That struggle had led
her into a similar conflict for the leadership of the East. There
were old men still living who had talked with veterans of the
Sicilian War with Carthage, and the grandsons of the Romans
who had fought with Hannibal had burned Carthage and
Corinth at the end of the great wars. For nearly a century
and a quarter (beginning 264 B.C.) one great war had followed
another, and the Roman republic, beginning these struggles as
mistress of Italy only, had in this short space of time (from great-
grandfather to great-grandson) gained the political leadership of
the civilized world (cf. maps I, II, and III, p. 552).

The Roman Senate had shown eminent ability in conduct-
ing the great wars, but now, having gained the supremacy
of the Mediterranean world, Rome was faced by the problem
of devising successful government for the vast dominions which
she had so quickly conquered. In extent they would have
reached entirely across the United States. To organize such
an empire was a task like that which had been so successfully
accomplished by Darius, the organizer of the Persian Empire
(§ 267). We shall find that the Roman Senate utterly failed

Sequence Map showing the Expansion of the Roman Powe

TO THE Death (

lOM THE Beginning of the Wars with Carthage (264 b.c.)

iESAR (44 B.C.)

World Dominion and Degeneracy 553

in the effort to organize the new dominions. The failure had
a most disastrous influence on the Romans themselves and,
together with the ruinous effects of the long wars on Italy,
finally overthrew the Roman republic — an overthrow in which
Rome as a nation almost perished. Let us now glance at the
efforts of Rome to govern her new dominions and then
observe the effect of the long wars and of world power on
the Romans and their life.

Section 81. Roman Government and Civilization
IN the Age of Conquest

The Romans had at first no experience in governing their 887. Estab-
conquered lands, as the United States had none when it took of Roman
possession of the Philippines. Most of the conquered coun- P^'ovmces
tries the Romans organized as provinces, somewhat after the
manner of the provinces of the old Persian Empire. The peo-
ple of a province were not permitted to maintain an army,
but they were obliged to pay taxes and, lastly, to submit to
the uncontrolled rule of a Roman magistrate who was gov-
ernor of the province. It was chiefly the presence and power
of this governor which made the condition of the provinces
beyond the sea so different from that of the Roman possessions
in Italy. The regulations for the rule of the provinces were
made in each case by the Roman Senate, and on the whole
they were not oppressive. But the Senate made no provisions
for compelling the Roman governor to obey these regulations.

Such a governor, enjoying unlimited power like that of an 888. The
oriental sovereign, found himself far from home with Roman powTrand
troops at his elbow awaiting his slightest command. He had corruption of
complete control of all the taxes of the province, and he could provincial
take what he needed from its people to support his troops and
the expenses of his government. He usually held office for a
single year and was generally without experience in provincial
government. His eagerness to gain a fortune in his short term

governors

554

Ancient Times

889. The
new wealth
of Rome

890. Growth
of commerce
and the rise
of banking

of office and his complete ignorance of the needs of his prov-
ince frequently reduced his government to a mere system of
looting and robbery. The Senate soon found it necessary to
have laws passed for the punishment of such abuses ; but these
laws were found to be of little use in improving the situation.

The effects of this situation were soon apparent in Italy. In
the first place, the income of the Roman government was so
enormously increased that it was no longer necessary to collect
direct taxes from Roman citizens. This new wealth was not
confined to the State. The spoils from the wars were usually
taken by the victorious commanders and their troops. At the
same time the provinces were soon filled with Roman business
men. There were contractors called publicans, who were allowed
to collect the taxes for the State at a great profit (§ 623), or
gained the right to work State lands. We remember the common
references to these publicans in the New Testament, where they
are regularly classified with " sinners." With them came Roman
money-lenders, who enriched themselves by loaning money at
high rates of interest to the numerous provincials who were
obliged to borrow to pay the extortionate taxes claimed by
the Roman governors. The publicans were themselves money-
lenders, and all these men of money plundered the provinces
worse than the greedy Roman governors themselves. As these
people returned to Italy, there grew up a wealthy class such
as had been unknown there before.

Their ability to buy resulted in a vast import trade to supply
the demand. From the Bay of Naples to the mouth of the
Tiber the sea was white with Roman ships converging on the
docks of Rome. The men who controlled all this traffic be-
came wealthy merchants. To handle all the money in circula-
tion, banks were required. During the Hannibalic War the
first banks appeared at Rome occupying a line of booths on
each side of the Forum. After 200 B.C. these booths gave
way to a fine basilica (§ 732) like those which had appeared in
the Hellenistic cities (Fig. 271,3). Here the new wealthy class

World Dominion and Dege7teracy

555

met to transact financial business, and here large companies
were formed for the collection of taxes and for taking govern-
ment contracts to build roads and bridges or to erect public build-
ings. Shares in such companies were daily sold, and a business
like that of a modern
slock exchange devel-
oped in the Forum.

Under these influ-
ences Rome greatly
changed. With in-
creasing wealth and
growing population,
there was a great
increase in the de-
mand for dwellings.
Rents at once rose,
and land in the city
greatly increased in
value. A good form
of paying investment
was apartments for
rent, and as the value
of property rose, a
larger return in rents
could be secured by
increasing the number
of floors. Hence own-
ers began to erect
tall buildings with
several stories, though these ancient " skyscrapers " were
never as tall as ours. It became necessary to limit their height
by law, as we do, and when badly built, as they sometimes were,
they fell down, as they have been known to do in our own cities.

When a returned governor of Africa put up a showy new
house, the citizen across the way who still lived in his father's

Fig. 240. An

Old Roman
House

Atrium-

There was no attempt at beautiful archi-
tecture, and the bare front showed no adorn-
ment whatever. The opening in the roof,
which Hghted the atrium (§ 892), received
the rainfall of a section of the roof sloping
toward it, and this water collected in a pool
built to receive it in the flLoor of the atrium
below (Fig. 241, i^). The tiny area, or garden,
shown in the rear was not common. It was
here that the later Romans added the Hel-
lenistic peristyle (Fig. 242)

891. Rome
becomes a
profitable
real-estate
center

556

Ancient Times

892. The old-
fashioned
Roman
house

'-TT-TT-T-

Fig. 241,

House

old house began to be dissatisfied with it It was built of sun-
dried brick, and, like the old settler's cabin of eariy America, it
had but one room. In this room all the household life centered.
The stool and spinning outfit of the wife and the bed of the

citizen were each
assigned to a comer,
while the kitchen
was simply another
corner where the
family meals were
cooked over an open
fire. There was no
chimney, and the
smoke passed out
of a square hole in
the middle of the
roof. The whole
place was so be-
grimed by smoke
that the room was
called the atrium^
a word perhaps
connected with the
Latin word for
"black" (Fig. 240).
Here, then, the fam-
ily took their meals,
here they slept, and
here in full view of

Plan

WITH

OF A Roman
Peristyle

The earliest Roman house had consisted of a
single room, the atrium {A), with the pool for the
rain water {^B). Then a small alcove, or lean-to,
was erected at the rear (f), as a room for the
master of the house. Later the bedrooms on
each side of the atrium were added. Finally,
under the influence of Greek life (§ 893), the
garden court (Z> and Fig. 242) with its surround-
ing colonnaded porch (peristyle) (Fig. 208) and
a fountain in the middle {E) was built at the
rear. Then a dining room, sitting room, and
bedrooms were added, which opened on this
court, and being without windows, they were
lighted from the court through the doors. In
town houses it was quite easy to partition off
a shop, or even a whole row of shops, along
the front or side of the house, as in the Hel-
lenistic house (Fig. 208). The houses of Pom-
peii (Fig. 255) were almost all built in this way

pots and kettles,
beds and tables, the master of the house received his friends
and transacted his affairs with business or official callers.

The Roman citizen of the new age had walked the streets of
the Hellenistic cities. Indeed, he had long before been familiar
with the comfort, luxury, and beauty with which the Greek

World Dominioji and Degeneracy

557

houses of Capua and Naples were filled (§§ 728 and 738). At 893. The
first he added bedrooms on either side of his atrium and an Roman's
additional small room at its rear, as the master's office and pri- jJouse^^^^™
vate room. Soon^ however, even the enlarged atrium-house

Fig. 242. Peristyle of a Pompeian House

We must imagine ourselves standing with our backs toward the atrium
(having immediately behind us the room C in Fig. 241). We look out
into the court, the garden of the house (Fig. 241,/?). The marble
tables and statues and the marble fountain basin in the middle
(Fig. 241, E), just as we see them here in the drawing, were all found by
the excavators in their places, as they were covered by volcanic ashes
over eighteen hundred years ago (Fig. 255). Here centered the family
life, and here the children played about the court, brightened with
flowers and the tinkling music of the fountains

(Fig. 240) was not large enough, and behind it was added the
Hellenistic court surrounded by its colonnaded porch (Figs. 241
and 242), from which opened bedrooms, a dining room, a
library, rest rooms, and at the rear the kitchen. As luxury in-
creased a second story might be added to receive the bedrooms

558

Ancient Times

894. The

luxurious
furnishings
and adorn-
ment of the
wealthy Ro-
man's house

895. The

new conven-
iences and
luxuries of
the wealthy
Roman
household

and perhaps the dining room also. The atrium then became a
large and stately reception hall where the master of the house
could display his wealth in statues, paintings, and other works
of art — the trophies of war from the East.

The old Roman houses had been unadorned and had con-
tained nothing but the bare necessities. Carthaginian ambassa-
dors had been much amused to recognize at successive dinners in
Rome the same silver dishes which had been loaned around from
house to house. Not long before the Carthaginian wars an ex-
consul had been fined for having more than ten pounds' weight
of silverware in his house. A generation later a wealthy Roman
was using in his household silverware which weighed some ten
thousand pounds. One of the Roman conquerors of Macedonia
entered Rome with two hundred and fifty wagonloads of Greek
statues and paintings. The general who crushed the ^tolians
carried off over five hundred bronze and marble statues, while
the destroyer of Carthage filled all Rome with Greek sculptures.
A wealthy citizen in even so small a city as Pompeii paved a
dining alcove with a magnificent mosaic picture of Alexander in
battle (Fig. 202), which had once formed a floor in a splendid
Hellenistic house in Alexandria. In the same way the finest
furniture, hangings, and carpets of the East now began to adorn
the houses of the wealthy in Rome.

All those conveniences which we have found in the Hellenistic
dwellings (§ 728) were likewise quickly introduced, such as pipes
for running water, baths, and sanitary conveniences. The more
elaborate houses were finally equipped with tile pipes conduct-
ing hot air for warming the important rooms, the earliest sys-
tem of hot-air heating yet found. The kitchen was furnished
with beautiful bronze utensils, far better than those commonly
found in our own kitchens (Fig. 243). On social occasions the
food on the table included imported delicacies and luxuries, pur-
chased at enormous expense. A jar of salted fish from the Black
Sea cost seventy-five or eighty dollars, and the old-fashioned sena-
tor Cato, in a speech in the Senate, protested against such

World Dominion and Degeneracy

559

luxury, stating that " Rome was the only city in the world
where such a jar of fish cost more than a yoke of oxen."

Such luxury required a great body of household servants. 896. Numer-
There was a doorkeeper at the front door (he was called '' jani- ^"Jj senTants
tor" from the Latin "word j'anua, meaning "door"), and from chiefly slaves

Fig. 243. Bronze Kitchen Utensils excavated at Pompeii

This kitchen ware used by the cooks of Pompeii was found still lying
in the kitchens of the houses as they were uncovered by the excavators.
The pieces have been lettered, and the student will find it interesting to
make a list of them by name, identifying them by letter and indicating
their use as far as possible

the front door inward there was a servant for every small duty
in the house, even to the attendant who rubbed down the mas-
ter of the house after his bath. Almost all these menials were
slaves, but it was not always possible to secure a slave as cook,
and a wealthy Roman would pay as much ^s five thousand
dollars a year for a really good cook.

56o

Ancient Times

897. Works
of Greek art
in Rome and
their refining
influence

898. Helle-
nistic archi-
tecture in
Rome; the
basilica and
the theater

899. Andro-
nicus and his
translations
of Greek
literature into
Latin (240-
207 B.C.)

While the effect of all this luxury introduced from the East
was on the whole very bad, nevertheless the former plain,
matter-of-fact, prosaic life of the Roman citizen was stimulated
and refined both at home and in the Senate hall by the most
beautiful creations of Greek genius. Even while eating his
dinner, the commonplace citizen of Pompeii sat looking at the
heroic death of the Persian nobles of Darius (Fig. 202). But
there were never any Roman artists capable of producing such
works as these.

A Roman senator returning from Alexandria could not but
feel that Rome, in spite of some new and modem buildings,
was very plain and unattractive, with its simple temples and
old public , buildings ; and he realized that Alexandria was the
greatest and most splendid city in the world. Roman emula-
tion was aroused and forms of Hellenistic architecture, like the
basilica on the Forum (§ 890), were beginning to appear in
Rome. It was not long, too, before a Greek theater appeared,
improved by the Romans with awnings to keep out the hot
sunshine, a curtain in front of the stage, like ours, and seats
in the orchestra circle where once the Greek chorus had sung
(PlateVII, p. 560).

At the close of the Sicilian War (241 b.c.) a Greek slave
named Andronicus, who had been taken as a lad by the Romans
when they captured the Greek city of Tarentum (§ 824), was
given his freedom by his master at Rome. Seeing the interest
of the Romans in Greek literature, he translated the Odyssey
(§ 410) into Latin as a schoolbook for Roman children. For
their elders he likewise rendered into Latin the classic trage-
dies which we have seen in Athens (§ 579), and also a
number of Attic comedies (§ 582). This worthy Greek, An-
dronicus, was the first literary man in history to attempt
artistic translations possessing literary finish. He was, there-
fore, the founder of the art of literary translation. Through
his work the materials and the forms of Greek literature
began to enter Roman life.

World Dominion and Degeneracy 561

The Romans had been accustomed to do very little in the 900. The old
way of educating their children. There were no schools at first, Roman^
but the good old Roman custom had been for the father to in- schools
struct his own children. Even when schools arose, there was
no literature for the Roman lads to learn, as Greek boys had
learned Homer and the other poets (§ 555). The Roman
father's respect for law and order led him to have his son taught
the " Twelve Tables " of the law, and recite them to the school-
master, as English-speaking children are taught the Ten Com-
mandments. Such schools had been very poorly equipped;
some of them, indeed, were held in the open air in a side
street or a corner of the Forum. At best they had met ia
a bare room belonging to a dwelling house, and there were no
schoolhouses.

Gradually parents began to send their children to the schools 901. Greek
which the freed Greek slaves of Rome were beginning to open in the new
there. Moreover, there was here and there a household which ?^^^^!!.°"

' in Kome

possessed an educated Greek slave, like Andronicus, who might

become the tutor of the children, giving regular instruction and
teaching his pupils to read from the new primer of Andronicus,
as we may call his Latin translation of Homer. Now and then
Greek teachers of renown appeared and lectured in Rome.
Young Roman nobles thus gained the opportunity of studying
rhetoric and public speaking, which they knew to be of great
practical use in the career of public office to which they all
aspired. Indeed, it was not uncommon for a young Roman of
station to complete his higher education in Athens itself (§ 762).

As Rome gained control of Greece, the mingling of Greek 902. The
and Roman life was increasingly intimate. When a thousand cultivated
of the leading Achaeans were brought to Rome as hostages ^Q^g!**^
(§ 884), there was among them a Greek statesman of great Polybius
refinement and literary culture named Polybius. He was taken
into the family of the Scipios, traveled about with them on their
great campaigns, and occupied a position of dignity and re-
spect. He witnessed the destruction of both Carthage and

562

Ancient Times

Greek
foundations
of Latin
literature

903.

fou

904. Rise
of Latin
literature

Corinth, and finally wrote an immortal history, in Greek, of
the great Roman wars. Such cultivated Greeks had a great
influence on the finer Romans like the Scipios. Polybius tells
how he stood with the younger Scipio and watched the burn-
ing of Carthage, while his young Roman lord burst into tears
and quoted Homer's noble lines regarding the destruction
of Troy.

Such familiarity with the only literature known to the Romans,
such daily and hourly intimacy with cultivated Greeks, aroused
the impulse toward literary expression among the Romans
themselves. To be sure, the Latins, like all peasant peoples,
had had their folk songs and their simple forms of verse, but
these natural products of the soil of Latium soon disappeared
as the men of Latin speech felt the influence of an already
highly finished literature. Latin literature, therefore, did not
develop along its own lines from native beginnings, as did
Greek literature, but it grew up on the basis of a great inherit-
ance from abroad. Indeed, we now see, as the Roman poet
Horace said, that Rome, the conqueror, was herself conquered
by the civilization of the Greeks.

Poets and writers of history now arose in Italy, and educated
Romans could read of the great deeds of their ancestors in long
epic poems modeled on those of Homer. In such literature were
gradually recorded the picturesque legends of early Rome, like
the story of Romulus and Remus and similar tales (p. 484, note),
extending down through the early kings (p. 497, note). It is
from these sources, now no longer regarded as history, that the
early history of Rome used to be drawn. The Greek comedies
of Menander (§ 754) attracted the Romans greatly; imitat-
ing these, the new Latin play writers, especially Plautus (died
about 184 B.C.) and Terence (died about 159 B.C.), produced
very clever comedies caricaturing the society of Rome, to which
the Romans listened with uproarious delight. Their production
on the* stage led to the highly developed theater buildings which
we have already mentioned (§ 898).

World Dominion and Degeneracy 563

As the new Latin literature grew, papyrus rolls bearing Latin 905. Publish-
works were more and more common in Rome. Then publish- ^nd the^edu-
ers, in back rooms filled with slave copyists, began to appear '^'^^^^ *^^^*^
in the city. One of the Roman conquerors of Macedon brought
back the books of the Macedonian king, and founded the first
private library in Rome. Wealthy Romans were now pro-
viding library rooms in their houses. A group of literary
men arose, including the finest of the Roman leaders, and no
man could claim to belong to this cultivated world without
acquaintance with a well-stocked library of Greek and Latin
books. Such Romans spoke Greek almost if not quite as well
as Latin. These educated men were finally in sharp contrast
with the uneducated mass of the Roman people, and there
thus arose the two classes, educated and uneducated — a
distinction unknown in the days of the early farmer republic.

Section 82. Degeneration in City and Country

The new life of Greek culture and luxury brought with it 906. Corrupt-
many evils. Even the younger Scipio, an ardent friend of Greek ^^i^^ new^^^
literature and art, expressed his pained surprise at finding: luxury ; laws

^ ^ r r t> against ex-

Roman boys in a Greek dancing school, learning unwholesome travagance
dances, just as many worthy people among us disapprove of
the new dances now widely cultivated in America. Cato, one
of the hardiest of the old-fashioned Romans, denounced the new
culture and the luxury which had come in with it (§ 895). As
censor he had the power to stop many of the luxurious new
practices, and he spread terror among the showy young dandies
and ladies of fashion in Rome. He and other Romans like him
succeeded in passing law after law against expensive habits of
many kinds, like the growing love of showy jewelry among
the women, or their use of carriages where they formerly
went on foot. But such laws could not prevent the slow cor-
ruption of the people. The old simplicity, purity, and beauty
of Roman family life was disappearing, and divorce was

564

Ancient Times

907. Inability
of the masses
to appreciate
Greek
literature

908. Gladi-
atorial com-
bats as a
political
influence

909. Amphi-
theater for
gladiatorial
combats, and
circuses for
chariot races

becoming common. The greatest days of Roman character
were past, and Roman power was to go on growing, without
the restraining influence of old Roman virtue.

This was especially evident in the lives of the uneducated and
poorer classes also. To them, as indeed to the vast majority of
all classes, Greek civilization was chiefly attractive because of
the numerous luxuries of Hellenistic life. The common people
had no comprehension of Greek civilization. At the destruction
of Corinth, Polybius saw Roman soldiers shaking dice on a won-
derful old Greek painting which they had torn down from the
wall and spread out on the ground like an old piece of awning.
When a cultivated Roman thought to gain popular favor by
arranging a program of Greek instrumental music at a pub-
lic entertainment, the audience stopped the performance and
shouted to the musicians to throw down their instruments and
begin a boxing match ! Contrast this with the Athenian public
in the days of Pericles I

It was to Roman citizens with tastes like these that the
leaders of the new age were obliged to turn for votes and for
support in order to gain office. To such tastes, therefore, the
Roman nobles began to appeal. Early in the Sicilian War with
Carthage there had been introduced the old Etruscan custom
of single combats between condemned criminals or slaves, who
slew each other to honor the funeral of some great Roman.
These combatants came to be called gladiators, from a Latin
word gladius, meaning " sword." The delight of the Roman
people in these bloody displays was such that the officials in
charge of the various public feasts, without waiting for a
funeral, used to arrange a long program of such combats in
the hope of pleasing the people, and thus gaining their votes
and securing election to future higher offices.

These barbarous and bloody spectacles took place at first
within a temporary circle of seats, which finally became a great
stone structure especially built for the purpose. It was called
an amphitheater, because it was formed by placing two (amphi)

World Dominion and Degeneracy 565

theaters face to face (Fig. 262). Soon afterward combats be-
tween gladiators and wild beasts were introduced (headpiece,
p. 549). The athletic contests which had so interested the
Greeks were far too tame for the appetite of the Roman public.
The chariot race, however, did appeal to the Romans, and they
began to build enormous courses surrounded by seats for vast
numbers of spectators. These buildings they called circuses.

The common people of Rome were thus gradually debased 910. Distri-
and taught to expect such public spectacles, sometimes lasting free°grain
for days, as their share of the plunder from the great con- ^^^^^"^^
quests. At the same time, as their poverty increased, the free
food once furnished them by the wealthy classes far exceeded
what private donors were able to give. It was therefore taken
up by the State, which arranged regular distributions of grain
to the populace. Vicious as this custom was, it was far from
being so great an evil as the bribery which the candidates for
office now secretly practiced. Laws passed to prevent the
practice were of slight effect. The only Roman citizens who
could vote were those who attended the assemblies at Rome,
and henceforth we have only too often the spectacle of a
Roman candidate controlling the government that ruled the
world by bribing the little body of citizens who attended the
Roman assemblies.

All these practices enormously increased the expenses of a pn. Ex-
political career. The young Roman, who formerly might have a polScd
demonstrated his ability and his worthy character in some minor career; lack

■' ■' of a civil

office as a claim upon the votes of the community, was now service
obliged to borrow money to pay for a long program of gladia-
torial games. In secret he might also spend a large sum in
bribing voters. If elected he received no salary, and in carry-
ing on the business of his office he was again obliged to meet
heavy expenses. For the Roman government had never been
properly equipped with clerks, bookkeepers, and accountants;
that is, the staff of public servants whom we call the " civil
service." The newly elected official, therefore, had to supply

566

Ancient Times

OI2. Growth
of self-
interest; the
unrepublican
character of
returned
provincial
governors

913. Growth
of great es-
tates; decline
of the small
farms

914. Cap-
tives of war
as slaves

a Staff of clerks at his own expense. Even a consul sat at
home in a household room turned into an office and carried
on government business with his own clerks and accountants,
of whom one was usually a Greek.

The Roman politician now sought office, in order that through
it he might gain the influence which would bring him the governor-
ship of a rich province. If he finally gained his object, he often
reached his province burdened with debts incurred in winning
elections in Rome. But the prize of a large province was worth
all it cost. Indeed, the consulship itself was finally regarded as
merely a stepping-stone to a provincial governorship. When a
retired provincial governor returned to Rome, he was no longer
the simple Roman of the good old days. He lived like a prince
and, as we have seen, he surrounded himself with royal luxury.
These men of self-interest, who had held the supreme power
in a province, were a menace to the republic, for they had
tasted the power of kings without the restraints of Roman law
and Roman republican institutions to hamper them.

But the evils of the new Wealth were not less evident in the
country. It was not thought proper for a Roman senator or
noble to undertake commercial enterprises or to engage in any
business. The most respectable form of wealth was lands.
Hence the successful Roman noble bought farm after farm,
which he combined into a great estate or plantation. The capi-
talists who had plundered the provinces did the same. Look-
ing northward from Rome, the old Etruscan country was now
made up of extensive estates belonging to wealthy Romans of
the city. Only here and there were still to be found the little
farms of the good old Roman days. Large portions of Italy
were in this condition. The small farm seemed in a fair way
to disappear as it had done in Greece (§ 626).

It was impossible for a wealthy landowner to work these
great estates with free, hired labor. Nor was he obliged to
do so. From the close of the Hannibalic War onward the
Roman conquests had brought to Italy great numbers of

World Dominion and Degeneracy 567

captives of war from Carthage, Spain, Gaul, Macedonia, Greece,
and Asia Minor. These unhappy prisoners were sold as slaves.
The coast of the Adriatic opposite Italy alone yielded one
hundred and fifty thousand captives. An ordinary day laborer
would bring about three hundred dollars at auction, a crafts-
man or a good clerk was much more valuable, and a young
woman who could play the lyre would bring a thousand dollars.
The sale of such captives was thus enormously profitable. We
have already seen such slaves in the households at Rome. The
estates of Italy were now filled with them.

Household slavery was usually not attended with much hard- 915. Brutal
ship, but the life of the slaves on the great plantations was plantation
little better than that of beasts. Worthy and free-born men ^"^^^^^
from the eastern Mediterranean were branded with a hot iron
like oxen, to identify them forever. They were herded at night
in cellar barracks, and in the morning were driven like half-
starved beasts of burden to work in the fields. The green
fields of Italy, where sturdy farmers once watched the grow-
ing grain sown and cultivated by their own hands, were now
worked by wretched and hopeless creatures who wished they
had never been bom. When the supply of captives from the
wars failed, the Roman government winked at the practices
of slave pirates, who carried on wholesale kidnaping in the
yEgean and eastern Mediterranean for years. They sold the
victims in the slave market at Delos, whence they were brought
by Roman merchants to Italy.

Thus Italy and Sicily were fairly flooded with slaves. The 916- Slave
brutal treatment which they received was so unbearable that at disorders
various places in Italy they finally rose against their masters.
Even when they did not revolt, they were a grave danger to
public safety. The lonelier roads of Italy were infested by
slave herdsmen, lawless ancient cowboys who robbed and slew
and in many districts made it unsafe to live in the country or
travel the country roads. The conditions in Sicily were worse
than in Italy. In central and southern Sicily the revolting

568 Ancient Times

slaves gathered some sixty thousand in number, slew their
masters, captured towns, and set up a kingdom. It required
a Roman consul at the head of an army and a war lasting
several years to subdue them.

917. Hos- During the uprising of the slaves in Sicily the small farm
the nch and" owners, free men, went about burning the fine villas of the
p^ciany^th? ^^^^^^7 plantation proprietors. The slave rebellion therefore
small fanners was a revelation of the hatred not only among the slaves but

also among the poor farming class of freemen — the hatred
toward the rich landowners felt by all the lower classes in the
country, slave or free. The great conquests and the wealth
they brought in had made the rich so much richer and the
poor so much poorer that the two classes were completely
thrust apart and they no longer had any common life. Italy
was divided into two great social classes dangerously hostile to
each other. The bulk of the population of Italy had formerly
been small farmers, as we have seen. Let us examine the effect
of the great wars on the small farmers.

918. De- War seemed a great and glorious thing when we were fol-
farms and lowing the brilliant victories of Hannibal and the splendid tri-
itaiy by^war ""^P^^ of Scipio at Zama. But now we are to see the other- side

of the picture. Never has there been an age in which the ter-
rible and desolating results of war have so tragically revealed
the awful cost of such glory. The happy and industrious fami-
lies cultivating the little farms which dotted the green hills and
plains of Italy had now been helplessly scattered by the storms
of war, as the wind drives the autumn leaves. The campaigns
of Hannibal left southern Italy desolate far and wide, and
much of central Italy was in little better condition. These
devastated districts left lying waste were never again cultivated,
and slowly became pasture lands. In regions untouched by
invasion, fathers and elder sons had been absent from home
for years holding their posts in the legion, fighting the battles
which brought Rome her great position as mistress of the
world. If the soldier returned he often found the monotonous

World Dominion and Degeneracy 5^9

round of farm duties much too tedious after his adventurous
life of war abroad. Leaving the plow, therefore, he returned
to his place in the legion to resume the exciting life of war and
plunder under some great leader whom he loved. Home life
and wholesome country influences were undermined and broken "
up. The mothers, left to bring up the younger children alone,
saw the family scattered and drifting away from the little farm,
till it was left forsaken.

Too often as the returning soldier approached the spot where 919. The
he was bom he no longer found the house that had sheltered bought up
his childhood. His family was gone and his little farm, sold for pla^^tlon^
debt, had been bought up by some wealthy Roman of the city owners
and absorbed into a great plantation like those which the
Romans had found surrounding Carthage (§ 837). His neigh-
bors, too, had disappeared and their farms had likewise gone
to enlarge the rich man's great estate. Across the hills on a
sunny eminence he saw the stately villa, the home of the
Roman noble, who now owned the farms of all the surround-
ing country. He cursed the wealth which had done all this,
and wandered up to the great city to look for free grain from
the government, to enjoy the games and circuses, and to in-
crease the poor class already there.

Or if he found his home and his little farm uninjured, and was 920. inability
willing to settle down to work its fields as of old, he was soon °o compete
aware that the hordes of slaves now cultivating the great planta- fu^^'n^^
tions around him were producing grain so cheaply, that when he cheap im-
had sold his harvest he had not received enough for it to enable
him and his family to live. At the same time the markets of
Italy were filled with cheap grain from Sicily, Africa, and Egypt.
With this imported grain often given away by the government,
he could not compete, and slowly he fell behind ; he borrowed
money, and his debts increased. Forced to sell the little farm
at last, he too wandered into Rome, where he found thousands
upon thousands of his kind, homeless, embittered, and dependent
upon the State for food.

570

Ancient Times

921. Degen-
eration and
discontent
in Italy

922. Ecp-
nomic and
agricultural
decline in
Greece

923. Decline
of Hellenistic
civiliiation

The Sturdy farmer-citizens who had made up the bulk of
the citizenship of Rome, the yeomanry from whom she had
drawn her splendid armies, — these men who had formed the
very substance of the power upon which the Roman Senate
had built up its world empire, were now perishing. After the
Macedonian wars the census returns showed a steady decline in
the number of citizens of the republic in Italy. At the same time
there was serious discontent among the cities of the allies in
Italy because they had never been given full citizenship. They
saw the government of a world empire in the hands of a corrupt
Senate and a small body of more and more brutalized citizens
at Rome, and they demanded their share in the control of the
great empire to whose armies they had contributed as many
troops as the citizens of the Republic had done.

The wealth and power which Roman world dominion l-iad
gained had thus brought Rome and Italy to the verge of de-
struction. Nor was the situation any better in the most civi-
lized portions of the empire outside of Italy, and especially in
Greece. Under the large plantation system, introduced from
Asia Minor, where it had grown up under the Persians (§ 269),
the Greek farmers had disappeared (§ 626), as those of Italy
were now beginning to do. Add to this condition the robberies
and extortions of the Roman taxgatherers and governors, the
continuous slave raids of the ^gean pirates, whose pillaging
and kidnaping the Roman Republic criminally failed to prevent,
the shift of Greek commerce eastward (§ 724), and we have
reasons enough for the destruction of business, of agriculture,
and of prosperity in the Greek world.

But that wondrous development of higher civilization which
we found in the Hellenistic world (Chap. XXI) was likewise
showing signs of decline. The sumptuous buildings forming
the great home of science in Alexandria (§ 743) now repre-
sented little more than the high aims once cherished and sup-
ported by the Macedonian kings of Egypt. For when such
State support failed, with its salaries and pensions to scientists

World Dominion mid Degeneracy 571

and philosophers, the line of scientists failed too. Hence we

see how largely science in the Hellenistic Age was rooted in

the treasuries of the Hellenistic kings, rather than in the minds

of the Greek race as it had been of old, when for sheer love of

knowledge the Greek philosopher carried on his studies without

such support.

The Mediterranean was now the home of Greek civilization 924. Failure

in the East and of Roman civilization in the West, but the fail- government

ure of the Roman Senate to organize a successful government ^^j.*^^ Medi-

for the empire they had conquered, — a government even as world ; peril-
ous situation
good as that of Persia under Darius (§ 286), — this failure had of civilization

brought the whole world of Mediterranean civilization perilously
near destruction. In the European background beyond the
Alpine frontiers, there were rumblings of vast movements
among the northern barbarians, threatening to descend as oi
old and completely overwhelm the civilization which for over
three thousand years had been slowly built up by Orientals and
Greeks and Romans in the Mediterranean world. It now
looked very much as if the Roman State was about to perish,
and with it the civilization which had been growing for so many
centuries. Was civilized man indeed to perish from the earth ?
Or would the Roman State be able to survive and to preserve
civilization from destruction ?

Rome was a city-state. The finest fruits of civilization in 925. The
art, literature, science, and thought had been produced under cky"stote in^
the government of city-states, as we have seen (§ 767). But i™penal
among the Greeks this very limited form of state had out-
lived its usefulness and had over and over again proved its
inability to organize and control successfully a larger world,
that is, an empire. The city-state of the Roman Republic
had now also demonstrated that its limited machinery of
government was quite unfitted to rule successfully the vast
Mediterranean world which it was now endeavoring to con-
trol. Would it be able to transform itself into a great im-
perial State, with all the many offices necessary to give

572

Ancient Times

926. The re-
sponsibility
of Rome to
organize and
defend the
civilization
of the Medi-
terranean
world

successful government to the peoples and nations surrounding
the Mediterranean ? Would it then be able to do for the Medi-
terranean world what the oriental empires had once done for a
world equally large in Western Asia and Egypt ?

We stand at the point where the civilization of the Hellen-
istic world began to decline, after the destruction of Carthage
and Corinth (146 B.C.). We are now to watch the Roman
people in the deadly internal struggle which we have seen
impending between rich and poor. They had at the same time
to continue their rule of the Mediterranean world as best they
could, while the dangerous internal transformation was going
on. In the midst of these grave responsibilities they had also
to face the barbarian hordes of the North. In spite of all these
threatening dangers, we shall see them gaining the needed
imperial organization which enabled the Roman State to hurl
back the Northern barbarians, to hold the northern frontiers for
five hundred years, and thus to preserve the civilization which
had cost mankind so many centuries of slow progress — the
civilization which, because it was so preserved, has become our
own inheritance to-day. This achievement of Rome we are now
to follow in the final chapters of the story of the ancient world.

QUESTIONS

Section 80. As mistress of the western Mediterranean world,
what was to be Rome's attitude toward the other nations of the Med-
iterranean? Why was Rome bound to subdue Philip of Macedon.?
Describe the struggle between Rome and Macedon. By extending
her power over Macedon, with what other eastern empire was Rome
in contact? Describe the struggle between Rome and the Seleucid
Empire. What then happened to Macedon? to the Greeks? What
two splendid cities were destroyed in the same year by the Romans?
What can you say of the rapidity of the Roman conquests? Describe
the task of government now confronting Rome.

Section 81. Had the Romans any experience in governing prov-
inces ? Describe the rule of the usual Roman governor. What can
you say of the increase of Roman wealth ? What was the effect on

World Dominion and Dege7ieracy 573

business at Rome ? What kind of a house had the Roman formerly
lived in ? What kind did he now build ? How was it furnished, and
whence did its luxuries often come ? How did this compare with the
situation before the Carthaginian wars ? What can you say of the serv-
ants in a wealthy household ? Describe the effect of Greek works
of art in Rome. Were there any Roman artists equal to those in
Greece? Tell how Greek literature became known in Rome. De-
scribe the old Roman schools. How did educated Greeks affect
teaching in Rome.? Tell about Polybius. How did Latin literature
arise ? What can you say of libraries and the educated class ?

Section 82. How was the new luxury affecting Roman life.?
What were the tastes of the ordinary Roman 1 Describe the rise of
gladiatorial combats. What can you say about the expenses of a
political career.? What was happening to the small farms? Describe
slavery on the large estates ; slave revolts. Describe the effect of the
wars on the small farmers ; the effect of the large estates and cheap
grain. Describe the situation of Italy as a whole; of Greece and
the ^gean world. What was the situation of Hellenistic civilization
as a whole? How then had Roman leadership of the Mediterranean
world succeeded thus far? Did a city-state possess the organization
fitted to rule a great empire? What three great tasks faced the
Roman government : first in Italy, second in the whole Mediterra-
nean world, and third on the northern and eastern frontiers ?

Note. The sketch below shows us a comer of a Roman library. The books
are all in the form of rolls (Fig. 191), arranged in large pigeonhole sections hke
rolls of wall paper, with the ends pointing outward and bearing tags containing
the titles of the books. Thus the librarian was quickly able to find a given book
or to return it to the shelves at the proper place, as he is engaged in doing in
this relief.

CHAPTER XXVI

A CENTURY OF REVOLUTION AND THE END OF
THE REPUBLIC

Section 83. The Land Situation and the Beginning
OF THE Struggle between Senate and People

927. The We must now recall the problems noticed at the close of

sSiadon"to the last chapter, demanding settlement by the Roman Senate.
Sf ^^naf -^^ •'^^^^y there was in the first place the perilous condition of
the surviving farmers and the need of increasing in some way
their numbers and their farms. Equally dangerous was the
discontent of the Italian allies, who had never been given the
vote or the right to hold office. The problems outside of Italy
were not less pressing. They were, likewise, two in number.
There was first the thoroughgoing reform of provincial govern-
ment and the creation of a system of honest and successful
administration of the great Roman Empire. And second there
was the settlement of the frontier boundaries of the Em-
pire and the repulse of the invading barbarians who were

Note. The above headpiece shows us the two sides of a coin issued by
Brutus, one of the leading assassins of Julius Caesar (§ 969). On one side the
coin bears the head of Brutus, accompanied by his name and the title Imperator
(abbreviated to IMP). On the other side are two daggers, intended to recall the
assassination of Caesar, and between them appears the cap of liberty, to suggest
the liberty which the Romans supposedly gained by his murder. In order that
the meaning of all this might be perfectly clear, there appears, below, the inscrip-
tion EID MAR, which means the Ides of March (the Roman term for the
fifteenth of March), the date of Caesar's murder (§ 969).

574

A Century of Revolution 575

threatening to crush the Mediterranean world and its civilization,
as the prehistoric Greeks had crushed ^gean civilization (§ 380).

The Senate which was to meet this dangerous situation had 928. Short-
been in practical control of the Roman government since the the^Senate
days of the Samnite War. The senators now formed an oligarchy f "^^j ^3^;°^ ^
of selfish aristocrats as in the Greek cities (§ 618). Yet there their power
were no laws which had created the undisputed power of the
Senate. It was merely by their great prestige and their com-
bined influence as leading men and former magistrates (§811)
that they maintained the control of the State. The legal power
of the Roman State really rested in the hands of the Roman
people, as they gathered in their assemblies (§ 806), and this
power had never been surrendered to the Senate by any vote
or any law.

The crying needs of the farming class in Italy failed to pro- 929. The

duce any effect upon the blinded and selfish aristocrats of the of new farms

Senate as a whole. Even before the Hannibalic War the need farmefs^and

of newly distributed farm lands was sorely felt. Led by the the opening
■' ^ ^ oi the Strug-

brave Flaminius, who afterward as consul fell at the head of gle between

his army in Hannibal's ambush at Trasimene (§ 862), the people ^
Assembly had passed a law in defiance of the Senate, pro-
viding for a distribution of public lands which the senators
desired for themselves and their friends of the noble class.
As a result Flaminius was always hated by the senatorial party,
and ever after was regarded as the popular leader who opened
the struggle between people and Senate, and having thus shown
the people their power, had begun the dangerous policy of
allowing the unstable populace to control the government.
The conflict between Senate and people had subsided during
the Hannibalic War, but when this great danger had passed,
it would seem that a tribune named Licinius, who understood
the needs of the people, had succeeded in having a law passed
by the Assembly, which forbade any wealthy citizen from
holding over five hundred acres of the public lands, or pas-
turing more than a hundred cattle or five hundred sheep on

576

Ancient Times

530. The

absorption
of the public
lands by the
nobles

Tiberius

Gracchus,
tribune
(133 B.C.)

these lands. Such was the power of the senatorial party, how-
ever, that these Licinian laws had become a dead letter.^

In gaining control of Italy, Rome had finally annexed about
half of the peninsula, and no more land could now be taken
without seizing that of the Italian allies. About a decade
before the destruction of Carthage and Corinth the last
Roman colony had been founded. The only way to secure
new farms for assignment to landless farmers was by making
the Licinian laws effective, that is, by taking and assigning
to farmers the public lands already belonging to the State —
what we call "government lands" in the United States. But for
generations these lands had been largely held under all sorts
of arrangements by wealthy men, and it was sometimes diffi-
cult to decide whether a noble's estate was his legal property
or merely public land which he was using. Under these cir-
cumstances we can easily imagine with what stubbornness and
anger great landholders of the senatorial party would oppose
any effort to redistribute the public lands on a basis fair to all.

Flaminius had taught the people their power (§ 929). Since
then they had lacked a skillful leader. The unselfish patriot who
undertook to become the leader of the people' and to save Italy
from destruction by restoring the farmer class was a noble named
Tiberius Gracchus. He was a grandson of the elder Scipio,
the hero of Zama, and his sister had married the younger
Scipio. Elected tribune (133 B.C.), he used to address the
people with passionate eloquence and tell them of their wrongs:
"The beasts that prowl about Italy have holes and lurking
places, where they may make their beds. You who fight and die
for Italy enjoy only the blessings of air and light. These alone
are your heritage. Homeless, unsettled, you wander to and fro
with your wives and children. . . . You fight and die to give
wealth and luxury to others. You are called the masters of the
world ; yet there is no clod of earth that you can call your own."

1 The usually accepted earlier date for the Licinian laws (376 B.C.) is quite
impossible ; nor is the date above suggested at all certain.

A Century of Revolution S77

As tribune, Tiberius Gracchus submitted to the Assembly 933. Land
a law for the reassignment of public lands and the protection Tiberius
and support of the farming class. It was a statesmanlike and ^"^^^^"^^3^1,
moderate law. It called for little, if anything, more than what (132 b.c.)
was already demanded by the Licinian \a.ws. It was an
endeavor to do for Italy what Solon had done for Attica
(§ 469), and was decidedly more moderate than the legis-
lation of Solon. After a tragic struggle in which the new tribune
resorted to methods not strictly legal, he succeeded in passing
his law. In the effort to secure reelection, that he might insure
the enforcement of his law, Gracchus was slain by a mob of
senators, who rushed out of the Senate house and attacked
the tribune and his supporters. This was the first murder-
ous deed introducing a century of revolution and civil war
(133-31 B.C.), which terminated in the destruction of the
Roman Republic.

Ten years after the tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus, his 933- Struggle

younger brother Gains gained the same office (123 B.C.). He Gracchus

not only took up the struggle on behalf of the landless farmers, s^^nate^and

but he made it his definite object to attack and weaken the his death

(123-
Senate. He endeavored to enlist on the side of the people 121 b.c.)

every possible enemy of the Senate. He therefore organized
the capitalists and men of large business affairs, who, of course,
were not senators. Because of their wealth they had always
furnished their own horses and served in the army as horse-
men. They were therefore called knights ; or, as a group, the
equestrian order. Gains Gracchus secured the support of these
men by obtaining for them the right to collect the taxes in
Asia, and he gave them great power by founding a court made
up of knights for the trial of dishonest and extortionate Roman
governors appointed by the Senate. At the same time he pro-
posed to give to the Italian allies the long-desired full citizen-
ship — a proposal which angered the people as much as it did
the Senate. His efforts finally resulted in a riot in which Gains
Gracchus was killed, as his brother had been (121 p..c.).

578 Ancient Times

Section 84. The Rise of One-Man Power:
Marius and Sulla

934. Unre- The weakness in the reforms of the Gracchus brothers lay
popular ° chiefly in their unavoidable reliance upon votes ; that is, upon
support i-j^g unstable support of the people at the elections and at the

meetings of the popular assembly. It was difficult to hold the
interest of the people from election to election. In the Gracchan
elections, when work on the farms was pressing, the country
people around Rome would not take the time to go up to the
city and vote, although they were the very ones to be bene-
fited by the Gracchan laws. The work of Flaminius, and
especially of the Gracchi, had taught the people to look
up to a leader. This tendency was the beginning of one-
man power. But the leader to whom the people now turned
- was not a magistrate, as the Gracchi had been, but a military
commander.

935. The war Meantime the blindness and corruption of the Senate offered
tha Micfthe the people more than one opportunity for gaining power. The
^PP°*"^"^^"^ misrule of the Senate abroad was now so scandalous that the

of the peo-
ple's com- people seized this opportunity. In a war between Rome and

against the Jugurtha, ruler of the great kingdom of Numidia beside Carthage
in North Africa, the African king, knowing the weakness of the
Romans of this age, succeeded in bribing the consul, and thus
inflicted a. crushing defeat on the Roman army. The war then
dragged disgracefully on. These events so incensed the people
of Rome, that in spite of the fact that the Senate's commander,
an able and honest consul named Metellus, had finally met and
defeated Jugurtha, the Assembly passed a law appointing their
own general to supersede Metellus. The people thus assumed
charge of a great foreign enterprise, and, what was more im-
portant, the people by this action seized control of the army. The
Senate was unable to prevent the Assembly's action from go-
ing into effect. The interests of the people were no longer
dependent wholly upon civil magistrates, changing from election

Senate

A Century of Revolution 579

to election, but upon military force under a leader who might
be given a long command.

The commander on whom the people relied was himself a 936. Marius,
man of the people, named Marius, who had once been a rough commander,
plowboy. He was fortunately an able soldier, and he quickly '^^^^^^^ ^\
brought the war with Jugurtha to an end, after the Senate's the German

1 T r - Tin barbarians

leaders had allowed the war to drift on for six years. When
the news of his victory reached Rome the people promptly
elected him consul for the second time, before his return. In
104 B.C. he returned to Rome, and the people beheld the cap-
tive Numidian king led through the streets in chains. Meantime
the two powerful tribes of German barbarians, the Cimbrians
and the Teutons, combined with Gauls, had been shifting south-
ward and crossing the northern frontiers of Rome. In Gaul
and on the Gallic frontiers six Roman armies, one after another,
had been disastrously defeated. It looked as if the Roman
legions had at last met their match. There was great anxiety in
Rome, and the people determined to reelect Marius consul and
send him against the terrible northern barbarians. Meeting the
Teutons in southern Gaul, the people's hero not only defeated but
practically destroyed the first German host (102 b.c). Shortly
afterward, when the Cimbrians had finally succeeded in cross-
ing the Alps into the Po valley, Marius met and crushed them
also. A soldier of the people had saved Rome.

Marius was not only an able soldier, but he was also a great 937. Marius
organizer, and he introduced changes in the Roman army which property
were epoch-making both in the history of warfare and in the qualification
political history of Rome. In order to secure sufficient men service; the

risG of 3.

for the legions, he abolished the old custom of allowing only professional
citizens of property to serve in the army, and he took in the ^'^"^
poor and the penniless. Such men soon became professional
soldiers. As once in Greece (§ 629), so now in Rome, the day
of the citizen-soldier had passed. The long wars had made many
a Roman citizen practically a professional soldier, as we have
noticed. The army of Marius was largely a professional army,

58o

Ancient Times

938. The
cohort as the
tactical unit,
devised by
Marius

939. Failure
of Marius as
a statesman ;
the Senate
regains
leadership

and although the obligation to serve in the army still rested on
every Roman citizen, it was less and less rigidly enforced.

The youths who permanently took up the life of the soldier
could be so well drilled that they were able to carry out maneu-
vers impossible for an army made up of citizens serving for
a limited time. Marius therefore completely reorganized the
legion. He raised its numbers from forty-five hundred to six
thousand. He divided each six thousand into ten groups of
six hundred each. Such a body of six hundred was called a
cohort. It formed the unit in the shifting maneuvers, which, as
we have seen, meant victory or defeat in battle (§ 874). So
perfectly drilled and so fearless were these units, that the
cohorts would move about the field with the precision of clock-
work and with complete confidence in the plan of the com-
mander, just as the individuals in a perfectly trained football
squad respond almost automatically to the signal. The pro-
duction of the cohort, as we shall see, made it possible to
complete the final chapter in the development of the art of
warfare in ancient times.

But in spite of his ability as a soldier and as an army organ-
izer, Marius was not a statesman. Having risen from the ranks,
he was at heart a rough Roman peasant. He hated the aristo-
crats of the city ; he did not know how to deal with them, nor
did he understand the leadership of the popular party which had
given him his great military commands. Elected consul for the
sixth time in the year 100 B.C., he failed utterly to control the
leaders of his party in the political struggles in Rome. They went
to such excesses that two of them were slain in a riot. Moderate
men were estranged from the cause of the people, and the Sen-
ate gained the upper hand again. Marius retired in disgrace, but
his leadership had revealed to the people how they might gain
control over the Senate by combining on a military leader,
whose power, therefore, did not consist in the peaceful enforce-
ment of the laws and usages of the Roman State, but in the
illegal application of military force.

A Century of Revolution ^Z\

Meantime the struggle between Senate and people was com- 940. Dis- '
plicated by the increasing discontent of the Italian allies. They and^discon- ^
had contributed as many troops to the army which conquered j^au^naUie
the Empire as had Rome herself, and now they were refused
any voice in the control of that Empire or any share in the
immense wealth which they saw the Romans drawing from it.
The wise and liberal policy of the ancient Senate in freely
granting citizenship to communities in newly acquired Italian
territory (§ 814) had been long abandoned, reminding us of
the Athenians in the later years of Pericles (§ 588). Before
the different communities of Italy had had time to merge into
a nation (§ 828), they had been forced into a long series of
foreign wars which had built up the Empire. But the posses-
sion of this Empire had corrupted and blinded the Senate and
the governing community at Rome. By this sudden wealth and
power Rome had been raised above all feeling of fellowship
with the other communities of Italy. The great peninsula was
still filled with disunited communities (§ 829), and there now
rested upon Rome the obligation to make Italy a nation.

There were, happily, some Roman leaders with the insight of 941. Blind

statesmen, who perceived this great need and who planned that ness^of^the

the Italian allies should receive citizenship. Among them was Romans and

^ *=> assassination

a wealthy, popular, and unselfish noble named Drusus, who of Drusus

gained election as tribune and began measures leading to the
.enfranchisement of the Italian allies. But so fierce and savage
was the opposition aroused, that this great Roman statesman
was stabbed in the street. The opposition to Drusus and his
plans was by no means confined to the Senate. The common
people of Rome were likewise jealous of their ancient privileges,
and the wealthy men of the new equestrian order were equally
unwilling to share their opportunities of plundering the prov-
inces. The Italian allies therefore soon saw the hopelessness
of an appeal to Rome for their rights. Immediately after the
assassination of "Drusus the leading Italian peoples of central
and southern Italy revolted and formed a new state and

582

Ancient Times

942. War

with allies
(Social War,
90-88 B.C.) ;
citizenship
given to
all Italy

943. Rise
of Sulla ; a
consul sus-
tains the
Senate and
defeats the
will of the
people with
an army

government of their own, with a capital at a central town
which they impressively renamed Italica (90 B.C.).

In the war which followed, the army of Rome was at first
completely defeated, and although this reverse was in a measure
retrieved, the strength of the allies could not be broken. Seeing
the seriousness of the situation, the Roman politicians tardily
took action and granted the desired citizenship. The Italian
alliance then broke up, and the Italian communities reentered
the Roman State. Yet they entered it as distant wards of the
city on the Tiber. The citizens residing in. these distant wards
could not vote or take any part in the government unless they
journeyed to Rome to do so. This situation was of course an
absurdity, and again illustrated the inability of an ancient
city-state to furnish the machinery of government for a large
nation, not to mention a world empire. Nevertheless, Italy was
on the way to become a nation unified in government and
in speech.

A very threatening war was now breaking out in Asia Minor.
Wealthy senators and other Romans of the moneyed class who
ruled Rome had many financial interests in this region, and
this led them to dread a war there, and to stop it as soon as
possible. Among the officers of Marius there had been a very
successful soldier named Sulla, who was chosen consul for the
year after the war with the allies. The Senate now selected him
to command in Asia Minor. But the leaders of the people would,
not accept the Senate's appointment, and just as in the war
against Jugurtha, they passed a law electing Marius to command
in the coming Asia Minor war. Now Marius had no army at
the moment, but Sulla was still at the head of the army he
had been leading against the Italian allies. He therefore ignored
the law passed by the people, and marched on Rome with his
troops. For the first time a Roman consul took possession of
the city by force. The Senate was now putting through its will
with an army, as the Assembly had before done. Sulla forced
through a new law by which the Assembly would always be

A Century of Revolution 583

obliged to secure the consent of the Senate before it could vote
on any measure. Having thus destroyed the power of the
people legally to oppose the will of the Senate, Sulla marched
off to his command in Asia Minor.

The Senate had triumphed, but with the departure of Sulla 944. Resto-
and his legions the people refused to submit. There was people's con-
fighting in the streets, and the senatorial troops fell upon the gb^selTcf "war
new Italian citizens as they voted in the Forum and slew them and murder

in the streets

by hundreds. In the midst of these deeds of violence Manus, of Rome
who had escaped to Africa, returned at the head of a body of
cavalry. He joined the popular leaders, and, entering Rome, he
began a frightful massacre of the leading men of the senatorial
party. The Senate, the first to sow seeds of violence in the
murder of Tiberius Gracchus (§ 932), now reaped a fearful
harvest. Marius was elected consul for the seventh time, but
he died a few days after his election (86 b. c). Meantime the
people ruled in Rome until the day of reckoning which was
sure to come on the return of Sulla.

The war which had called Sulla to Asia Minor was due to 945. Sulla's
the genius of Mithradates, the gifted young king of Pontus against^
(see map IV, p. 552). He had prospered by taking advantage of Mithradates
Roman misrule in the East. He had rapidly extended his king-
dom to include a large part of Asia Minor, and such was the
deep-seated discontent of the Greek cities under Roman rule *
that he was able to induce the Greek states of Asia Minor and
some in Greece to join him in a war against Rome. Even
Athens, which had suffered least, supported him. The Romans,
busily occupied with civil war at home, were thus suddenly
confronted by a foe in the East who seemed as dangerous as
Carthage had once been. Sulla besieged Athens (see descrip-
tion of cut, p. 425), recovered European Greece, and drove the
troops of Mithradates back into Asia. Thereupon crossing to
Asia Minor he finally concluded a peace with Mithradates. He
laid an enormous indemnity of twenty thousand talents on the
Greek cities of Asia Minor. Then leaving them to the tender

584

Ancient Times

946. Sulla
defeats the
armies of
the Roman
people and
is made Dic-
tator (82 B.C.)

SH7. Sulla
deprives the

{)eople of po-
itical power
and gives
the Senate
supreme
leadership
(82-79 B.C.)

mercies of the Roman money-lenders and to the barbarous
raids of the eastern pirates, Sulla returned to Rome.

On the way thither the Roman army of Sulla defeated the
Roman armies of the people, one after another. Finally, out-
side the gates of the city, Sulla overthrew the last army of the
people and entered Rome as master of the State, without any
legal power to exercise such mastery. By means of his army,
however, he forced his own appointment as Dictator, with far
greater powers than any Dictator had ever before possessed
(82 B.C.). His first action was to begin the systematic slaughter
of the leaders of the people's party and the confiscation of their
property. Rome passed through another reign of terror like
that which followed Marius's return. The hatreds and the many
debts of revenge which Sulla's barbarities left behind were
later a frequent source of disturbance and danger to the
State (§ 951).

Then Sulla forced the passage of a whole series of new laws
which deprived the Assembly of the people and the tribunes of
their power, and gave the supreme leadership of the State to
the Senate, the body which had already so disastrously failed
to guide Rome wisely since the great conquests. Some lesser
reforms of value Sulla did introduce, but a policy based on the
supremacy of the Senate was doomed to failure. To Sulla's
great credit he made no attempt to gain permanent control of
the State, but on the completion of his legislation he retired to
private life (79 B.C.).

Section 85. The Overthrow of the Republic:

POMPEY AND CiESAR

948. The
people elect
Pompey
consul and
regain po-
litical power
(70 B.C.)

Following the death of Sulla a year after his retirement,
agitation for the repeal of his hateful laws, which bound the
people and the tribunes hand and foot, at once began. To
accomplish this the people had now learned that they must
make use of a military leader. The Senate had been ruling

A Century of Revolution 585

nine years in accordance with Sulla's laws when the popular
leaders found the military commander whom they needed. He
was a former officer of Sulla, named Pompey, who had recently
won distinction in Spain, where he had been sent by the Senate
to overthrow a still unsubdued supporter of Marius. He was
elected consul (70 B.C.) chiefly because he agreed to repeal the
obnoxious laws of Sulla, and he did not fail to carry out his
promise. This service to the people now secured to Pompey a
military command of supreme importance.

Such was the neglect of the Senate to protect shipping that 949. Pirates
the pirates of the East, chiefly from Cilicia, had overrun the terranean
whole Mediterranean (§ 915). They even appeared at the a"^^n3ent^
mouth of the Tiber, robbing and burning. They kidnaped against them
Roman officials on the Appian Way, but a few miles from
Rome, and they finally captured the grain supplies coming in to
Rome from Egypt and Africa. In 67 B.C. the Assembly of
the people passed a law giving Pompey supreme command in
the Mediterranean and for fifty miles back from its shores. He
was assigned two hundred ships and allowed to make his army
as large as he thought necessary. No Roman commander had
ever before held such far-reaching and unrepublican power.

In forty days Pompey cleared the western Mediterranean of 95:0. Exter-
pirates. He then sailed eastward, and in seven weeks after his the pirates,
arrival in the ^gean he had exterminated the Cilician sea Mkhradates^
robbers likewise and burned their docks and strongholds, and conquests
The next year his command was enlarged to include also the by Pompey
leadership in a new war against Mithradates which had been ^ '^ 2b.c.)
going on with satisfactory results under Lucullus, a Roman
commander of the greatest ability. Lucullus had already broken
the power of Mithradates and also of the vast kingdom of
Armenia, under its king, Tigranes. Pompey therefore had little
difficulty in subduing Mithradates, and had only to accept the
voluntary submission of Tigranes. He crushed the remnant of
the kingdom of the Seleucids (§ 718) and made Syria a Roman
province. He entered Jerusalem and brought the home of the

586

Ancient Times

951. Rise of
Caesar and
his support
of Catiline
and Antony

Jews under Roman control. Before he turned back, the legions
under his leadership had marched along the Euphrates and had
looked down upon the Caspian. There had been no such con-
quests in the Orient since the Macedonian campaigns, and to
the popular imagination Pompey seemed a new Alexander

marching in triumph through
the East. ,

Meantime a new popular
hero had arisen at Rome. He
was a nephew of Marius,
named Julius Caesar (Fig. 244),
born in the year 100 B.C., and
thirty years old in Pompey's
consulate. He had supported
all the legislation against the
laws of Sulla and in favor of
Pompey's appointment to his
great command. He took up
the cause of Marius, and ex-
alted his memory in public
speeches so that he quickly
gained a foremost place among
the leaders of the people. The
hatreds aroused by Sulla's ex-
ecutions and confiscations had
left a great number of revenge-
ful and dissatisfied men, who to no small extent made up the fol-
lowing of Caesar. Among Caesar's political friends was a noble
named Catiline. He was the leader of a good many undesirable
followers, but Caesar was supporting him and another friend
for election to the consulship.

Popular distrust of Caesar's purposes, and Catiline's evil
reputation, led to the defeat of Catiline and to the election
of Cicero, a comparatively new man, but the ablest orator and
the most gifted literary man of the age. By the formation of

Fig. 244. Bust said to be a
Portrait of Julius Cesar

The ancient portraits commonly

accepted as those of Julius Caesar

are really of uncertain identity

A Century of Revolution 587

a new middle-class party from the Italian communities, which 952. The

should stand between the Senate and the people, Cicero dreamed catiline and

of a restoration of the old republic as it had once been. Cati- Jjj^the'^'^reat

line, meantime, burdened with debts and rendered desperate by orator Cicero

. (63 B.C.)

the loss of the election, gathered about him .all the dissatisfied

bankrupts, landless peasants, Sullan veterans, outlaws, and slaves,

the debased and lawless elements df Italy seeking an opportunity

to rid themselves of debt or to better their situation. Foiled by

Cicero in an attempt to seize violent control of the government,

the reckless Catiline died fighting at the head of his motley

following. Cicero's overthrow of Catiline brought him great

power and influence and made his consulship (63 B.C.) one of

brilliant success. Caesar, on the other hand, was suspected

of connection with the uprising of Catiline. This suspicion,

whether just or unjust, proved to be a serious setback in his

political career.

Just at this juncture Pompey returned to Italy clothed in 953. Return

splendor as the great conqueror of the Orient. He made no ^^e trlumvi-

attempt to influence the political situation by means of his rate — Pom-
'■ \ ■' pey, Caesar,

army, the command of which he relinquished ; but he needed and Crassus ;

political influence to secure the Senate's formal approval of elected
his arrangements in Asia Minor, and a grant of land for /?g^Bc\
his troops. For two years the Senate refused Pompey these
concessions. Meantime Caesar stepped forward in Pompey's
support, and the two secured for their plans the support
of a very wealthy Roman noble named Crassus. The plan
was that Caesar should run for the consulship and, if suc-
cessful, secure the two things which we have seen Pompey
needed. This private alliance of these three powerful men
(called a " triumvirate ") gave them the control of the
situation. As a result Caesar was elected consul for the year
59 B.C.

The consulship was but a step in Caesar's plans. Having
secured for Pompey the measures which he desired, Caesar
fearlessly put through new land laws for the benefit of the

588 Ancient Times

954. Caesar people, and then provided for his own future career. It was
govemment clear to him that he must have an important military command
b^ h^"d°" '^^ order to gain an army. He saw a great opportunity in the
of the Alps West, like that which had been given Pompey in the Orient.

Rome still held no more than a comparatively narrow strip of
land along the coast of what is now southern France. On its
north was a vast country occupied by the Gauls, and this region
of Gaul was now sought by Caesar. He had no difficulty in
securing the passage of a law which made him for five years
governor of lUyria and of Gaul on both sides of the Alps, that
is, the valley of the Po in northern Italy, which we remember
had been occupied by the Gauls (§ 815), and also of further
Gaul beyond the Alps, as just described.

955. Caesar's Csesar took charge of his new province early in 58 B.C., and
and^g&nerai ^^ ^nce showed himself a military commander of surpassing
plan of oper- gj^jj]^ ^^'^ Qj^jy ^jj^j j^g posscss the keenest insie^ht into the

ationsinGaul j v o

tactical maneuvers which win victory on the field of battle
itself, but he also understood at a glance the resources and
abilities of a people and their armies. He knew that the
greatest problem facing a commander was to keep his army-
in supplies and to guard against moving it to a point where it
was impossible either to carry with it the supplies for feeding
it or to find them on the spot. So efficient was his own great
organization that he knew he could carry such supplies more
successfully than could the barbarian Gauls. He perceived that
no great barbarian host could be kept long together in one place,
because they did not possess the organization for carrying with
them, or securing later, enough food to maintain them long.
When the necessity of finding provisions had forced them to
separate into smaller armies, then Caesar swiftly advanced and
defeated these smaller divisions.

956. Caesar's By this general plan of operations in eight years of march
of^Gauf* and battle he subdued the Gauls and conquered their territory
(58-50 B.C.) from the ocean and the English Channel eastward to the Rhine.

He drove out a dangerous invasion of Gaul by the Germans,

A Century of Revolution 589

and astonishing them by the skill and speed with which he built
a bridge over the Rhine, he invaded their country and estab-
lished the frontier of the new Gallic province at the Rhine.
He even crossed the Channel and carried an invasion of Britain
as far as the Thames. He added a vast dominion to the
Roman Empire, comprising in general the territory of modern
France and Belgium. We should not forget that his conquest
brought Latin into France, as the ancestor from which French
speech has descended (see map IV, p. 552).

Caesar had shown himself at Rome a successful politician. 957. Caesar's
In Gaul he proved his ability as a brilliant soldier. Was he situation as
also a great statesman, or was he, like Pompey, merely to seek ^ statesman
a succession of military commands and to accomplish nothing
to deliver Rome from being a cat's-paw of one military com-
mander after another? Caesar's understanding of the situation
at Rome was perfectly clear and had been, so from the begin-
ning. He was convinced that the foreign wars and the rule of
the provinces had introduced into Roman government the ever-
returning opportunity for a man of ability to gain military
power which could not be controlled by the State. It was
of no use to bring in a new political party, as Cicero hoped
to do, and to pit mere votes against the flashing swords of the
legions. For the old machinery of government furnished by
the republic possessed no means of preventing the rise of one
ambitious general after another to fight for control of the State
as Marius and Sulla had done. The republic could therefore
never again restore order and stable government for Italy
and the empire. Herein Caesar showed his superiority as a
statesman over both Sulla and Cicero.

The situation therefore demanded an able and patriotic com- 958. Csesar
mander with an army behind him who should make himself JccounTof^"
the undisputed and permanent master of the Roman govern- ^ G^Xixc
ment and subdue all other competitors. Consistently and stead-
ily Caesar pursued this aim, and it is no reflection upon him to
say that it satisfied his ambition to do so. One of his cleverest

590 Ancient Times

moves was the publication of the story of his Gallic campaigns,
•which he found time to write even in the midst of dangerous
marches and critical battles. The tale is narrated with the most
unpretentious simplicity. Although it is one of the greatest
works of Latin prose, the book was really a political pamphlet,
intended to convey to the Roman people an indelible impression
of the vast conquests and other services which they owed to
their governor in Gaul. " It did not fail of its purpose. At
present it is the best-known Latin reading book for beginners
in that language in the whole civilized world.

959. Pompey When Caesar's second term as governor of Gaul drew near
takes up the its end, his supporters in Rome, instructed by him, were arrang-
Senate'^ *^^ ing for his second election to the consulship. The Senate was

dreading his return to Italy and was putting forth every effort
to prevent his reelection as consul. The experience in the time
of Marius had taught the Senate what to fear when a victorious
commander returned to Rome to avenge their opposition to the
people. They must have a military leader like Sulla again.
Meantime Crassus, the wealthy member of the triumvirate
(§ 953), had been slain in a disastrous war against the Par-
thians, beyond the Euphrates, and the group had broken up,
thus freeing Pompey. In the midst of great confusion and
political conflict in Rome, the leading senators now made offers
to Pompey, in spite of the fact that he had received his great
command from the Assembly of the people and had been a
leader of the popular party. He was no statesman and had no
plans for the future of the State. He was simply looking for
a command. The result was that he undertook to defend the
cause of the Senate and support the enemies of the people.
What should have been a lawful political contest, again became
a military struggle between two commanding generals, Caesar
and Pompey, like that of Marius and Sulla a generation earlier.

960. Casar Caesar endeavored to compromise with the Senate, but on
of profes""^ receiving as their reply a summons to disband his army, he had
«ionai soldiers j^o hesitation as to his future action. The professional soldiers

A Century of Revolution 591

who now made up a Roman army had no interest in political
questions, felt no responsibility as citizens, and were conscious
of very little obligation 'or attachment to the State. On the
other hand, they were usually greatly attached to their com-
manding general. The veterans of Caesar's Gallic campaigns
were unswervingly devoted to him. When he gave the word,
therefore, his troops followed him on the march to Rome with-
out a moment's hesitation, to draw their swords against their
fellow Romans forming the army of the Senate under Pompey.
Caesar and his troops at once crossed the Rubicon, the little
stream which formed the boundary of his province toward
Rome. Beyond this boundary Caesar had no legal right to lead
his forces, and in crossing it he had taken a step which became
so memorable that we still proverbially speak of any great deci-
sion as a " crossing of the Rubicon."

The swiftness of Caesar's lightning blows was always one 961. Caesar
of the greatest reasons for his success. Before the Senate's maneuvers^'
message had been an hour in his hands, Caesar's legions had ^T^PT^ °"j
been on the march from the Po valley toward Rome (49 b. c). is elected
Totally unprepared for so swift a response on Caesar's part, the (49 b.c.)
Senate turned to Pompey, who informed them that the forces
at his command could not hold Rome against Caesar. Indeed,
there was at the moment no army in the Empire capable of
meeting Caesar's veteran legions with any hope of victory.
Pompey retreated, and as Caesar approached Rome, the majority
of the senators and a large number of nobles fled with Pompey
and his army. By skillful maneuvers Caesar forced Pompey and
his followers to forsake Italy and cross over to Greece. Caesar's
possession of Rome made it possible for him to be elected
consul, and then to assume the role of lawful defender of
Rome against the Senate and the army of Pompey.

His position, however, was not yet secure. Pompey, in the
eyes of the Orient, was the greatest man in Rome. He could
muster all the peoples and kingdoms of the East against Caesar.
Furthermore, he now held the great fleet with which he had

592

Ancient Times

962. Pom-
pey's power.
Caesar cap-
tures Pom-
pey's army
in Spain
(summer of
49 B.C.)

963. Caesar
surprises the
senatorial
party by
crossing
to Greece
(winter of
49-48 B.C.)

964. Battle
of Pharsalus
(48 B.C.)

suppressed the pirates, and he was thus master of the sea.
With all the East at his back, he was improving every moment
to gather and discipline an army with which to crush Caesar.
Furthermore, Pompey's officers still held Spain since his recov-
ery of it from the followers of Marius. Caesar was therefore
obliged to reckon with the followers of Pompey on both sides,
East and West. He determined to deal with the West first.
With his customary swiftness he was in Spain by June (49 b. c).
Here he met the army of Pompey's commanders with maneuvers
of such surprising cleverness that in a few weeks he cut off
their supplies, surrounded them and forced them to surrender
without fighting a battle.

Having heard of Caesar's departure into Spain, Pompey and
his great group of senators and nobles had been preparing at
their leisure to cross over and take possession of Italy. Before
they could even begin the crossing, Caesar had returned from
Spain victorious, and to their amazement, in spite of the fact
that they controlled the sea, he embarked at Brundisium,
evaded their warships, and landed his army on the coast of
Epirus. Forced by lack of supplies to divide his army, a part
of his troops suffered a dangerous reverse. In the end, how-
ever, in spite of his inferior numbers, he accepted battle with
Pompey at Pharsalus, in Thessaly (48 B.C.).

Pompey's plan for the battle was skillfully made, but it was
not clever enough to outwit the greatest commander of the age.
It consisted in drawing up his line so that a small stream would
protect his right wing, in order that he might throw all his cav-
alry to the left wing. Probably twice as strong as Caesar's right
wing which it faced, it was expected to cut its way victoriously
through, and then, passing around Caesar's right end, to attack
his legions in the rear. As the two armies approached each
other, Caesar perceived Pompey's plan of battle. He at once
shifted six of his best cohorts, over three thousand men, to his
right end, where they were screened by his cavalry from dis-
covery by the enemy (plan, p. 593). The position of these 'six

A Century of Revolution

593

cohorts may be compared to that of an unobserved football
player crouching on the right side lines to receive the ball.
Csesar then ordered his cavalry, mostly Gauls and Germans,
to retreat as Pompey's horsemen attacked them. As they re-
treated, Pompey's unsuspecting cavalry followed and pushed
forward into Caesar's cleverly devised trap. For when Caesar's
six cohorts swiftly dropped in behind them, Pompey's horsemen
were caught between the six cohorts behind and Caesar's cav-
alry in front, and they were quickly cut to pieces. Caesar's
cavalry then swept swiftly around the enemy's now undefended

Pompey's
Pompey's Imfantry Cavalry

j j Hills

/ Town

Hills

W/MMW/////////////////M^^^^

Csesar '8

Caesar 's Infantry ^ -2 MCavalry

III (

Plan of the Battle of Pharsalus (§ 964)

left end and attacked Pompey's legions in the rear. As Caesar
threw in his reserves against the hostile center at the same
moment, the whole senatorial army was driven off the field in
flight. Its remnants surrendered the next morning.

This battle represented the highest development of military 965. C^sar
art, and it never passed beyond the masterful skill of the victor conquesrof ^
of Pharsalus. Pompey, crushed by the first defeat of his life,
escaped into Egypt, where he was basely murdered. Caesar,
following Pompey to Egypt, found ruling there the beautiful
Cleopatra, the seventh of the name, and the last of the Ptole-
mies. The charms of this remarkable queen and the political

594

Ancient Times

966. Caesar's
moderation
and his own
position

967. Caesar's
reorganization
of the State
and Empire

advantages of her friendship met a ready response on the part
of the great Roman. Here Caesar displayed probably the most
serious weakness in his career, as he tarried in Alexandria, dally-
ing with this beautiful and gifted woman for three-quarters of
a year (from October, 48, to June, 47 b.c). In a dangerous
outbreak which found Caesar without sufficient troops, he was
attacked by a mob and the great Alexandrian library (§ 750)
was burned. We know little of the operations and battles by
which Caesar overthrew his opponents in Asia Minor. It was
from there that he sent his famous report to the Senate : " I
came, I saw, I conquered " {veni^ vidi^ vici). He was equally
triumphant in the African province behind Carthage, and finally
also in Spain. These, the only obstacles to Caesar's complete
control of the empire of the world, were all disposed of by
March, 45 b.c, a little over four years after he had first taken
possession of Italy with his army (map IV, p. 552).

Caesar used his power with great moderation and humanity.
From the first he had taken great pains to show that his
methods were not those of the bloody Sulla. He gratified no
personal revenge, and he preserved the life of the gifted Cicero
(§ 952), in spite of his hostility. It is clear that he intended
his own position to be that of a Hellenistic sovereign like Alex-
ander the Great. Nevertheless, he was too wise a statesman to
abolish at once the outward forms of the Republic. He pos-
sessed all the real power, and the Republic was doomed, for
there was no one in Rome to gainsay this mightiest of the
Romans. He had himself made Dictator for life, and assumed
also the powers of the other leading offices of the State.

Caesar lived only five years (49-44 b.c.) after his first con-
quest of Italy (49 B.C.). Of this period, as we have seen, four
years were almost wholly occupied by campaigns. He was
therefore left but little time for the colossal task of reshaping
the Roman State and organizing the vast Roman Empire, the
task in which the Roman Senate had so completely failed. Sulla
had raised the membership of the Senate from three to six

A Century of Revolution 595

hundred. Caesar did not abolish the ancient body, but he greatly
increased its numbers, filled it with his own friends and adher-
ents, and even installed former slaves and foreigners among its
members. He thus destroyed the public respect for it, and it
was entirely ready to do his bidding. The new Senate could
not obstruct him and hence the whole projected administration
of the provinces centered in him and was permanently responsi-
ble to him. The election of the officials of the Republic went
on as before, but he began far-reaching reforms of the corrupt
Roman administration. In all this he was launching the Roman
Empire. He was in fact its first emperor, and only his untimely
death continued the death struggles of the Republic for fifteen
years more.

He sketched vast plans for the rebuilding of Rome, for 968. Caesar's
magnificent public buildings, and for the alteration of the plan and improve-
of the city, including even a change in the course of the Tiber. "^^"^^
He laid out great roads along the important lines of com-
munication, and he planned to cut a sea canal through the
Isthmus of Corinth (Fig. 163). He completely reformed the
government of cities. He put an end to centuries of incon-
venience with the Greco-Roman moon-calendar (§ 564) by in-
troducing into Europe the practical Egyptian calendar (§ 61),
which we are still using, though with inconvenient Roman
alterations. The imperial sweep of his plans included far-
reaching conquests into new lands, like the subjugation of
the Germans. Had he carried out these plans, the language of
the Germans to-day would be a descendant of Latin, like the
speech of the French and the Spanish.

The eighteenth of March, 44 b.c, was set as the date for 969. The

Caesar's departure for the Orient on a great campaign against ofcisaf '°"

the Parthians east of the Euphrates. But there were still men (March 15

^ 44 B.C.) and

in Rome who were not ready to submit to the rule of one man, its results

On the fifteenth of March, three days before the date arranged

for his departure, and only a year after he had quelled the last

disturbance in Spain, these men struck down the greatest of

596

Ancient Times

the Romans. If some of the murderers of this just and kindly
statesman, who was for the first time giving the unhappy peoples
of the Mediterranean world a government alike just, honest, and
efficient, — if some of his murderers, like Brutus and Cassius
(headpiece, p. 574), fancied themselves patriots overthrowing a
tyrant, they little understood how vain were all such efforts
to restore the ancient Republic. World dominion and its mili-
tary power had forever demolished the Roman Republic, and
the mrurder of Caesar again plunged Italy and the Empire into
civil war. The death of Alexander the Great interrupted in
mid-career the conquest of a world empire stretching from the
frontiers of India to the Atlantic Ocean. The bloody deed
of the Ides of March, 44 B.C., stopped a similar conquest
by Julius Caesar — a conquest which would have subjected
Orient and Occident to the rule of a single sovereign. A like
opportunity never arose again, and Caesar's successor had
no such aims.

Section 86. The Triumph of Augustus and the
End of the Civil War

970. Youth
of Caesar's
nephew,
Octavian
(Augustus)

971. Early
career of
Octavian

Over in Illyria the terrible news from Rome found the mur-
dered statesman's grand-nephew Octavian (Fig. 245), a youth
of eighteen, quietly pursuing his studies. A letter from his
mother, brought by a secret messenger, bade him flee far away
eastward without delay, in order to escape all danger at the
hands of his uncle's murderers. The youth's reply was to pro-
ceed without a moment's hesitation to Rome. This statesman-
like decision of character reveals the quality of the young man
both as he then showed it and for years to follow.

On his arrival in Italy Octavian learned that he had been
legally adopted by Caesar and also made his sole heir. His
bold claim to his legal rights was met with refusal by Mark
Antony, Caesar's fellow consul and one of his closest friends
and supporters (§951), who had taken possession of Caesar's

A Century of Revolution

597

fortune and as consul could not be easily forced. By such
men Octavian was treated with patronizing indulgence at first
— a fact to which he owed his life. He was too young to be
regarded as dangerous. But his young shoulders carried a
very old head. He slowly gathered the threads of the tangled
situation in his clever fingers, not forgetting the lessons of his
adoptive father's career. The
most obvious lesson was the
necessity of military power.
He therefore rallied a force
of Caesar's veterans, and two
legions of Antony's troops
also came over to him. Then
playing the game of politics,
with military power at his
back and none too scrupulous
a conscience, he showed him-
self a statesman no longer to
be ignored.

By skillful improvement of
the situation at Rome, Oc-
tavian forced his own election
as consul when only twenty
years of age (43 b. c). He
was then able to form an
alliance composed of himself and the other two most powerful
leaders, Antony, Caesar's old follower, and Lepidus. This
second triumvirate (three-man-alliance) was officially recognized
by vote of the people. To obtain the money for carrying on
their wars and establishing themselves, the three began at once
a Sullan reign of terror, with confiscation of property and mur-
der of their enemies. Among them the great orator Cicero,
who had endeavored to preserve the old Republic, was slain
by Antony's brutal soldiers. He was the last of the orator-
statesmen of Rome, as had been Demosthenes of Athens

972. The

second
triumvirate

Fig.

TUS,

245. Portrait of Augus-
Now IN THE Boston Mu-
seum OF Fine Arts

598 Ancient Times

(§721). But the Republic was still supported by the two lead-
ing murderers of Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius. They were at
the head of a powerful eastern army, like that of Pompey,
and were encamped at Philippi in Macedonia. As soon as
they could leave Rome, Octavian and Antony moved against
Brutus and Cassius, arid in a great battle at Philippi the
last defenders of the Republic were completely defeated
(42 B.C.).
973. Octavian The two victors then divided their domains : Octavian was
ancTthe West to return to Italy and endeavor to crush the enemies of the
(42-35 B-c.) triumvirate in the West. Antony was to remain in the East
and bring it again under full subjection to Rome. In the West
a rebellious son of Pompey, who seized Sicily and held control
of the sea with his fleet, was finally crushed by Octavian ; and
soon after Lepidus, who had been given the province of Africa
behind Carthage, was also overthrown. Within ten years after
Caesar's assassination, and though only twenty-eight, Octavian
had gained complete control of Italy and the West.
$^74. Octavian Antony had meantime showed that he had no ability as a
/Tntonyand serious Statesman. His prestige was also greatly dimmed by
gains the ^ disastrous campaign against the Parthians. Dazzled by the
attractions of Cleopatra, he was now living in Alexandria and
Antioch, where he ruled the East as far as the Euphrates like
an oriental sovereign. With Cleopatra as his queen, he main-
tained a court of sumptuous splendor like that of the Persian
kings in the days of their empire. Cleopatra, who had once
hoped to rule Rome as Caesar's queen, was now cherishing
similar hopes as the favorite of Antony. The tales of all this
made their way to Rome and did not help Antony's cause in
the eyes of the Roman Senate. Octavian easily induced the
Senate for this and other reasons to declare war on Cleopatra,
and thus he was able to advance against Antony. As the
legions of Caesar and Pompey, representing the East and the
West, had once before faced each other on a battlefield in
Greece (§ 964), so now Octavian and Antony, the leaders of

A Century of Revolution 599

the East and the West, met at Actium on the west coast of
Greece. A naval battle was fought, with the land forces as
spectators. Before the end of the battle the soldiers of Antony
saw their leader and his oriental queen forsaking them in flight,
as Cleopatra's gorgeous galley, followed by her splendid royal
flotilla, swept out to sea carrying the cowardly Antony to Egypt.
The outcome was a sweeping victory for the heir of Caesar.

The next year Octavian landed in Egypt without resistance 975. Octavian
worth mentioning and took possession of the ancient land. ^Ro^man ^^
Antony, probably forsaken by Cleopatra, took his own life. ?J°^g"c t
The proud queen was unwilling to undergo the crushing humil- and ends a

... , V. c ^ century of

iation of gracmg Octavian s triumph at Rome, two of whose revolution
rulers had yielded to the power of her beauty and her person- ^ ^J^^^.
ality, and she too died by her own hand. She was the last of Job-c)
the Ptolemies (§ 716), the rulers of Egypt for nearly three
hundred years, since Alexander the Great. Octavian there-
fore made Egypt Roman territory (30 B.C.). To the West,
which he already controlled, Octavian had now added also the
East The lands under his control girdled the Mediterranean,
and the entire Mediterranean world was under the power of a
single ruler. Thus at last the unity of the Roman dominions
was restored and an entire century of revolution and civil war,
which had begun in the days of the Gracchi (133 B.C.), was
ended (30 B.C.).

Octavian's success marked the final triumph of one-man 076. The
power in the entire ancient world, as it had long ago triumphed tw?centuries
in the Orient. The century of strife which Octavian's victory o^ P^^ce
ended, was now followed by two centuries of profound peace,
broken by only one serious interruption. These were the first
two centuries of the Roman Empire, beginning in 30 b.c.^ We
shall now take up the two centuries of peace in the two following
chapters.

1 It should be noticed that these two centuries of peace did not begin with
the Christian Era. They began thirty years before the lirst year of the Christian
Era, and hence the two centuries of peace do not correspond exactly with the
first two centuries of our Christian Era.

6oo Ancient Times

QUESTIONS

Section 83. What problems beset the Roman State in Italy?
outside of Italy? What can you say of the ability and the legal right
of the Senate to meet these problems ? Who began the struggle for
farm lands on behalf of the people? How did the Licinian laws
attempt to aid the people ? What was the condition of the govern-
ment lands ? What did Tiberius Gracchus tell the people ? Describe
his efforts to aid the people, and the result. Recount the work of
Gaius Gracchus, and the result.

Section 84. What was the chief reason for the failure of the
Gracchus brothers? Toward what kind of power did their leader-
ship tend ? How did the people gain control of the army in the war
with Jugurtha? Recount the victories of Marius against Jugurtha
and the Northern barbarians. Give an account of his new military
measures. How did Marius succeed as a statesman ? What was now
the feeling of the Italian allies toward Rome ? What can you say of
Drusus? What happened on the death of Drusus? What was the
result of the war with the allies? Describe the rise of Sulla. How
did he defeat the will of the people? Was his action legal? What
happened in Rome after Sulla went to Asia Minor ? Recount Sulla's
campaign against Mithradates. What happened on Sulla's return to
Italy ? What was the policy of Sulla, and how did he put it through ?

Section 85. How did the people succeed in throwing off the
rule of the Senate ? What great command did they give to Pompey ?
Recount his operations against the pirates and in the Orient. Tell
about the rise of Julius Caesar. Recount the rise of Cicero and his
defeat of Catiline. How did this prove a setback to Caesar? How
did Caesar secure election as consul? Recount his campaigns in
Gaul. What was his view of the political situation of Rome ? What
did the Senate do to thwart Caesar ? What was the result of Caesar's
advance on Rome? Recount his operations in Spain, and his in-
vasion of Epirus. Describe the battle of Pharsalus. Recount briefly
the achievements of Caesar after his triumph. Tell the story of his
death and its results.

Section 86, Tell the story of Octavian until the battle of Philippi.
How did Octavian gain the West? Who was ruler of the East?
How did Octavian gain the East? What great world did he then
control ? What kind of power had triumphed at the end of a century
of revolution ? What was to follow ?

^^W^^^S^:^-r^

PART V. THE ROMAN EMPIRE
CHAPTER XXVII

THE FIRST OF TWO CENTURIES OF PEACE: THE AGE OF
AUGUSTUS AND THE SUCCESSORS OF HIS LINE

Section 87. The Rule of Augustus and the Begin-
ning OF Two Centuries of Peace (30 B.C.-14 a.d.)

When Octavian returned to Italy he was received with the 977. Octa-
greatest enthusiasm. A veritable hymn of thanksgiving arose ate^poUcy
among all classes at the termination of a century of revolution,
civil war, and devastation. The great majority of Romans now
felt that an individual ruler was necessary for the control of
the vast Roman dominions. Octavian therefore entered upon
forty-four years of peaceful and devoted effort to give to the

Note. The above headpiece shows a restoration of a magnificent marble in-
closure containing the " Altar of Augustan Peace," erected by order of the Sen-
ate in honor of Augustus. The inclosure was open to the sky, and its surrounding
walls, of which portions still exist, are covered below by a broad band of orna-
mental plant spirals, very sumptuous in effect. Above it is a series of reliefs, of
which the one on the right of the door pictures the legendary hero ^Eneas bring-
ing an offering to the temple of the Roman household gods (Penates) whom
he carried from Troy to Latium (footnote, p. 484).

601

6o2 Ancient Times

Roman Empire the organization and government which it had
so long lacked. His most difficult task was to alter the old form
of government so as to make a legal place for the power he
had taken by military force. Unlike Caesar, Octavian felt a sin-
cere respect for the institutions of the Roman Republic and
did not wish to destroy them nor to gain for himself the throne
of an oriental sovereign. During his struggle for the mastery
heretofore, he had preserved the forms of the Republic and had
been duly elected to his great position.
978. Organi- Accordingly, on returning to Rome, Octavian did not disturb
Roman State the Senate, but did much to strengthen it and improve its
by Octavian membership. Indeed, he voluntarily handed over his powers
to the Senate and the Roman people in January, 27 B.C. The
Senate thereupon, realizing by past experience its own helpless-
ness, and knowing that it did not possess the organization for
ruling the great Roman world successfully, gave him officially
the command of the army and the control of the most important
frontier provinces. Besides these vast powers, he held also the
important rights of a tribune (§§ 797, 810), and on this last
office he chiefly based his legal claim to his power in the State.
(^79. Titles of At the same time the Senate conferred upon him the title of
en w e " Augustus," that is, "the august." The chief name of his
office was " Princeps," that is, " the first," meaning the first of
the citizens. Another tide given the head of the Roman Empire
was an old word for director or commander ; namely, " Impera-
tor," from which our word " emperor " is derived. Augustus,
as we may now call him, regarded his position as that of an
official of the Roman Republic, appointed by the Senate.
Indeed, his appointment was not permanent, but for a term of
years, after which he was reappointed.
980. Dual The Roman Empire, which here emerges, was thus under a

theiTew^State- ^^^^ government of the Senate and of the Princeps, whom we
waning power commonly Call the emperor. The clever Augustus had done
what his great foster father, Julius Caesar, had thought unneces-
sary : he had conciliated those Romans who still cherished the

The First of Two Centuries of Peace 603

old Republic. The new arrangement was officially a restoration
of the Republic. But this dual state in which Augustus endeav-
ored to preserve the old Republic was not well balanced. The
Princeps held too much power to remain a mere appointive
official. His powers were more than once increased by the
Senate during the life of Augustus ; not on his demand, for he
always showed the Senate the most ceremonious respect, but
because the Senate could not dispense with his assistance. At
the same time the old powers of the Senate could not be main-
tained reign after reign, when the Senate controlled no army.

The Princeps was the real ruler, because the legions were 981. Tend-
behind him, and the so-called republican State created by ^i^^a^^^^
Augustus tended to become a military monarchy, as we shall ^"ntel^m-

see. All the influences from the Orient were in the same direc- fluences in

_ . 1, 1 , 1 o. 1 this direction

tion. Egypt was m no way controlled by the Senate, but re-
,nained a private domain of the emperor. In this the oldest
State on the Mediterranean the emperor was king, in the ori-
ental sense. He collected its huge revenues and ruled there as
the Pharaohs and Ptolemies had done (§ 717). His position
as absolute monarch in Egypt influenced his position as emperor
and his methods of government everywhere. Indeed, the East
as a whole could only understand the position of Augustus as
that of a king, and this title they at once applied to him. This
also had its influence in Rome.

The Empire which Rome now ruled consisted of the entire 982. Peace
Mediterranean world, or a fringe of states extending entirely Augustus,
around the Mediterranean and including all its shores (map I, f"^?^
p. 636). But the frontier boundaries, left almost entirely unsettled
by the Republic, were a pressing question. There was a natural
boundary in the south, the Sahara, and also in the west, the
Atlantic ; but on the north and east further conquests might be
made. In the main Augustus adopted the policy of organ-
izing and consolidating the Empire as he found it, without
making further conquests. In the east his boundary thus be-
came the Euphrates, and in the north the Danube and the

6o4 Ancient Times

Rhine. The angle made by the Rhine and the Danube was
not favorable for defense of the border, and late in his reign
Augustus seems to have made an effort to push forward to the
Elbe (see map I, p. 636). This would have given the Empire
a more nearly straight boundary, extending from the Black Sea
to Denmark in a line from the southeast to the northwest.
But whatever the intentions of Augustus may have been, the
Roman army was terribly defeated by the barbarous German
tribes, and the effort was abandoned. The northern boundary
of the Empire was then made a line of provinces west of the
Rhine and south of the Danube, extending from the North
Sea to the Black Sea.^

983. The For the defense of these vast frontiers it was necessary to
^""^ maintain a large standing army. Nevertheless the army, now

carefully reorganized by Augustus, was not as large as the
armies which had grown up in the civil wars. Augustus first
reduced it to eighteen legions, but later raised it to twenty-five.
It probably contained, on the average, about two hundred and
twenty-five thousand men. The army was now recruited chiefly
from the provinces, and the foreign soldier who entered the
ranks received citizenship in return for his service. Thus the
fiction that the army was made up of citizens was maintained.
But the tramp of the legions was heard no more in Italy. Hence-
forth they were posted far out on the frontiers, and the citizens
at home saw nothing of the troops who defended them.

984. The suf- At the accession of Augustus the Roman Empire from Rome
the provinces outward to the very frontiers of the provinces was sadly in

need of restoration and opportunity to recuperate. The cost of
the civil wars had been borne by the provinces. The eastern
dominions, especially Greece, where the most important fighting
of the long civil war had occurred, had suffered severely. For
a century and a half before the great battles of the civil war,
the provinces had been oppressed, excessively overtaxed or

1 Recent study of this question is leading some historians also to the view
that Augustus never really intended or attempted to conquer to the Elbe.

The First of Two Centuries of Peace 605

tacitly plundered (§ 888). Barbarian invaders had seized the
undefended cities of Greece and even established robber states
for plundering purposes. Greece herself never recovered from
the wounds then suffered, and, in general, the eastern Mediter-
ranean had been greatly demoralized. The civilized world was
longing for peace.

Augustus therefore now undertook to do for the Mediter- 985. the
ranean world what five hundred years earlier Darius had done Augustus \
for the Persian Empire (§ 267), when it was even larger than ^^f-^'^^^'Vh
the Roman Empire. But the task of Augustus demanded the provinces
organization of a much more highly civilized world than that of
the Persian Empire, including a vast network of commerce in
the Mediterranean such as no earlier age had ever seen. Great
peoples and nations had to be officially taken into the Empire
and given honest and efficient government. Some of them had
old and successful systems of government ; others had no gov-
ernment at all. Egypt, for example, had long before possessed
the most highly organized administration in the ancient world,
but regions of the West, like Gaul, had not yet been given a
system of government. All this Augustus endeavored to do.

Under the Republic the governor of a province not only 986. The
served for a short term but was also without experience. His system of
unlimited power, like that of an absolute monarch, made it im- governors of

^ ' ^ ' the provinces

possible for the consuls changing every year at home to control
him. The governor of a province was now appointed by the
permanent ruler at Rome, and such a governor knew that he
was responsible to that ruler for wise and honest government
of his province. He also knew that if he proved successful he
could hold his post for years, or be promoted to a better one.
There thus grew up under the permanent control of Augustus
and his successors a body of provincial governors of experience
and efficiency. The small group of less important provinces
still under the control of the Senate, although they continued to
suffer to some extent under the old system, also felt the influ-
ence of the improved methods.

6o6

Ancient Times

987. Augus-
tus for the
first time
regulates the
finances of
the Empire

988. Bene-
ficial effect
of the new
efficient
government

989. The

Mediterra-
nean world
on the way
to become a
Mediterra-
nean nation

In the days of the Republic no one had ever tried to settle
how much money was needed to carry on the government, and
how much of this sum each province ought justly to pay in the
form of taxes. Augustus proceeded to put together huge census
lists and property assessments, by which to determine the popu-
lation and the total value of the property in each province.
When this great piece of work was done he could determine
just how much taxes each province should justly pay. He de-
creed that the inhabitants of the provinces were to pay two
kinds of direct taxes, one on land and one on personal prop-
erty, besides customs duties and various internal revenue taxes.
Augustus had complete control of the vast sums which he thus
received in taxes, and his use of them was wise and just. Much
of this money went back to the provinces to pay for necessary
public works, like roads, bridges, aqueducts, and public build-,
ings. In making all these financial arrangements Augustus
learned much from Egypt.

Thus at last two centuries of Roman mismanagement of the
provinces ended, and the obligation of Rome to give good
government to her dependencies was finally fulfilled. The
establishment of just, stable, and efficient control by the gov-
ernment at once produced a profound change, visible in many
ways as we shall see (§§ 991-1004), but especially in business.
Men of capital no longer kept their money timidly out of sight,
but put it at once into business ventures. The rate of interest
tinder the last years of the Republic had been twelve per cent.
But as money now became more plentiful, the interest rate
quickly sank to four per cerff.

The great Mediterranean world under the control of Rome
now entered upon a new age of prosperity and development,
unknown before, when the nations along its shores were still
fighting each other in war after war. A process of unification
began which was to make the Mediterranean world a Mediter-:
ranean nation. The national threads of our historical narrative
have heretofore been numerous, as we have followed the stories

The First of Two Centuries of Peace 607

of the oriental nations, of Athens, Sparta, Macedonia, Rome,
Carthage, and others. For a long time we have followed these
narratives separately like individual strands ; but now they are
to be twisted together into a single thread of national history,
that of the Roman Empire. The great exceptions are the Ger-
man barbarians in the north, and the unconquered Orient east
of the Euphrates.

Section 88. The Civilization of the Augustan Age

In the new Mediterranean nation thus growing up, it was 990. Augus-

the purpose of Augustus that Italy should occupy a superior a"restoration

position, as the imperial leader of all the peoples around the j-fe'^nd^'j^ns

Mediterranean. Italy was not to sink to the level of these preeminence

of Italy

peoples nor to be merely one of them. We have seen the
sturdy virtues of earlier Roman character undermined and
corrupted by sudden wealth and power (§§ 906-922), before
Italy had had a chance to become a nation. Augustus made a
remarkable effort to undo all this damage and restore the fine
old days of rustic Roman virtue, the good old Roman customs,
the beliefs of the fathers. To meet increasing divorce, laws to
protect the sanctity of marriage were passed. The oriental gods,
so common for centuries in Greece (§ 657), and long wide-
spread in Italy, were to be banished. The people were urged
to awaken their declining interest in the religion of their fathers,
and the old religious feasts were celebrated with increased splen-
dor and impressiveness. At the same time the State temples,
which had frequently fallen into- decay, were repaired; new
ones were built, especially in Rome, and the services and usages
of Roman State religion were everywhere revived.

Tendencies like those which had changed the Roman people 991. The
lie too deep in the life and the nature of men to be much "^^ ^°™^
altered by the power of a government or the pressure of new
laws. It was a new world in which the Romans of the Augustan
Age were living. The more Augustus applied his own power

6o8 Ancient Times

to modify the situation, the more noticeable became the con-
trast between the Augustan Age and the old days before
one-man power arose. Under Augustus, Rome for the first
time received organized police, a fire department, a water
department, and a fully organized office for the government
sale of grain. Augustus himself boasted that he found Rome
a city of brick and left it a city of marble. To the visitor at
Rome, therefore, the new age proclaimed itself in imposing new
buildings. For republican Rome had lacked the magnificent
monumental theaters and gymnasia, libraries and music halls,
which had long adorned the greater Hellenistic cities. It had
also, of course, possessed no royal palace, like that at Alexandria.
Architecturally, Alexandria was still the most splendid city of
the ancient world.
992. Rome The great architectural works which Augustus now began,

center^of^art ; made Rome the leading art center of the ancient world. His
buildings of building plans were in the main those which his adoptive
Augustus father, the Great Dictator, had himself either laid out or al-
ready begun. On the Palatine Hill, Augustus united several
dwelling houses, already there, into a palace for his residence.
It was very simple, and the quiet taste of his sleeping room,
which long survived the rest of the building (§ 1014), was the

' * The Sacred Way (plan, p. 622) passed the litde circular temple of
Vesta (yi), and reached the Forum at the Arch of Augustus {^), and
the Temple of the Deified Julius Caesar (C). On the right was the old
Basilica of ^Emilius (Z?) (§ 890), and on the left the magnificent new
Basilica of Julius Caesar {E) (§ 993). Opposite this, across the old
Forum market place (Z'), was the new Senate House ((7) planned by
Julius Caesar (§ 993). At the upper end of the Forum was the new
speaker's platform {H) ; near it Septimius Severus later erected his
crude arch (7). Beyond rises the Capitol, with the Temple of Saturn
(/) and the Temple of Concord {K) at its base ; above on its slope is
the Tabularium (Z), a place of public records; and on the summit of
the Capitol the Temple of Jove {,M). Julius Caesar extended the Forum
northward by laying out his new Forum (TV) behind his Senate House
{G). The subsequent growth of the emperors' Forums on this side may
be seen in the next figure (Fig. 247), where the same lettering is repeated
and continued

Fig. 246. The Roman Forum and its Public Buildings in the
Early Empire. (After Luckenbach)*

We look across the ancient market place {F, § 784) to the Tiber with its
ships at the head of navigation. On each side of the market place, where
we see the buildings {£,/, and jD, G, I), were once rows of little wooden
booths for selling meat, fish, and other merchandise. Especially after the
beginning of the Carthaginian wars, these were displaced by fine buildings,
like the basilica hall D, built not long after 200 b. c. Note the square
ground plans (/, M) and the arches showing Etruscan influence, the Attic
roofs and colonnades and the clerestory windows (Z>, E) copied from the
Hellenistic cities. See complete key on opposite page, footnote

Fig. 247. The Forums of the Emperors continuing the View
OF THE Old Forum in Fig. 246. After L. Levy (Luckenbach)*

The plan (p. 622) shows how the Forums of the emperors formed a
connecting link uniting the old Roman Forum {F) with the magnificent
new buildings of the Campus Martins, like the Theater of Pompey,
Baths of Agrippa, Pantheon, etc. In order to make this connection,
Trajan cut away the ridge joining the Capitol Hill and the Quirinal Hill
to a depth of 100 feet. The summit of his column (7' above and Fig. 263)
still marks the former height of the ridge. Little now remains of all
this magnificence ; see the ruined colonnades around the column of
Trajan (Fig. 263). See discussion of buildings on opposite page, footnote

The First of Two Centuries of Peace 609

admiration of later Romans. From this royal dwelling on the
Palatine arose our English word " palace." A new and sumptu-
ous temple of Apollo surrounded by colonnades, in which the
emperor installed a large library (§ looi), was erected within
easy reach of his palace doors.

The palace looked down upon an imposing array of new 993. The
marble buildings surrounding the ancient Forum. Nearest the in the Forum
palace the magnificent basilica business hall erected by Caesar, ^"^ vicinity
left unfinished and then damaged by fire, was now restored and
completed by Augustus (Fig. 246, E). He also erected a new
Senate building, planned but never built by Caesar, opposite the
new basilica (Fig. 246, G). Facing the end of the Forum the em-
peror now built a temple for the worship of his deified foster
father, known as the temple of the Divine Julius (Fig. 246, 6),
and facing it, at the opposite end of the Forum, Augustus
placed a magnificent speaker's platform of marble (Fig. 246, IP).
Behind the ground intended by him for the new Senate
building, Caesar had built a new forum, called the Forum
of Caesar (Figs. 246 and 247, iV); but the growing business of
the city led Augustus to build a third forum, known as
the Forum of Augustus (Fig. 247, (9), which he placed next
to that of Caesar.

* The Senate House of Julius Caesar (C) and his new Forum {N)
extended from the old Forum northward, occupying the ground where
once the Assembly of the Roman People had been accustomed to meet
{Comitium). This northern addition to the old Forum was still further
extended in the same direction by the Forum of Augustus {O) (§ 993).
The great emperors of the first and second centuries then extended
this northern addition in two directions, first on the southeast (/*, 0,
and then on the northwest {R, S, T, U, V, W, and plan, p. 622). In the
first century Vespasian built the beautiful Forum of Peace (F), and the
aged Nerva inserted his long, narrow Forum ( Q) ; while in the second
century a. d. Trajan, going to the other side of the Forum of Augustus
{O), built the most magnificent of all the forums (A"), with a vast basil-
ica {S, called Basilica Ulpia) beside it, and beyond it his two libraries
(^> ^) (§ ioSi)» with his wonderful column {T, and Fig. 263) between
them. In Trajan's honor Hadrian then built a temple ( IV), completing
this line of the most magnificent buildings the ancient world ever saw.

6io

Ancient Tintes

994. First
theaters and
baths; Altar
of Peace

995. Influ-
ence of
Greece and
the Orient
on Roman
architecture

996. Com-
plete lack
of initiative
in sculpture
and painting
at Rome

The first stone theater in Rome had been built by Pompey
about twenty-five years before the accession of Augustus (plan,
p. 622). The emperor, therefore, erected a large and magnifi-
cent theater, which he named the Theater of Marcellus (§ 1007),
after his deceased son-in-law Marcellus. At the same time
Agrippa, the ablest of the generals and ministers of Augustus,
erected the first fine public baths in Rome, for which he was
given space in the Field of Mars, an old drill ground (plan,
p. 622). In connection with it were other splendid public build-
ings added by Agrippa, and a spacious open square for the
Assembly of the People. At the same time the Senate showed
its appreciation of the new era of peace by erecting a large
and beautiful marble Altar of Peace (headpiece, p. 601).

In this new architecture of Rome, Greek models were
the controlling influence. Nevertheless, oriental influences also
were very prominent. Greek architecture did not employ the
arch so long used in the Orient, but the architects of Rome
now gave it a place of prominence along with the colonnade,
as the two leading features of their buildings. It was through
these Roman buildings that the arch gained its important place
in our own modem architecture. Augustus seems to have been
much interested in the monuments of the ancient oriental world,
which he more than once visited. His triumphal arch was ar-
ranged with three gates like the Assyrian palace front (Fig. 248).
He carried away from the Nile a number of Egyptian obelisks
and set them up in Rome, and in building his own family tomb
he selected a design from the Orient. One of the noble families
of Rome even built a pyramid as a tomb, and it still stands on
the outskirts of the city (Fig. 249).

While architecture flourished in Rome, sculpture was less
cultivated. Beautiful sculpture, following old models, might still
be produced ; but there were no creative sculptors in Rome like
those whom we have met in Athens. Painting as an independ-
ent art had ceased to be practiced. There was not a single
great painter in Rome, and the painting which was practiced

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6l2

Ancient Times

997. Lack
of science
at Rome ;
Agjrippa's
map

was merely that of wall decoration, as we see it in the houses
of Pompeii (Fig. 197), which we are yet to visit.

If Rome was a borrower in art, she was even more so in
science. Rome had no such men as Archimedes (§742) and
Eratosthenes (§ 745). When Agrippa, Augustus's powerful

Fig. 249. Pyramid-Tomb of a Roman Noble named Cestius

Wealthy Romans familiar with the East (§ 1046) might erect a tomb of
oriental form, as the family of this noble Cestius did. His pyramid-
tomb when built (in the reign of Augustus) stood outside of the city;
but nearly three hundred years later it was included in the wall erected
around the city by Aurelian (270-275 a. d.) for the protection of
Rome against the barbarian invasions (§ 1096). Here we see a portion
of the wall of Aurelian on each side of the pyramid

minister, drew up a great map of the world, all he had in view
was the practical use of the map by Roman governors going
out to their provinces or by merchants traveling with goods.
Hence the roads were elaborately laid out, not on a fixed scale
but so that there would be space enough along each road for
the names of all the towns situated along it, and for all the

The First of Two Centuries of Peace 613

distances in miles between towns, which were inserted in figures
on the map. Such a map was without doubt convenient, but
it entirely lacked the network of latitude and longitude so
carefully worked out by Eratosthenes (§ 748), and for this
reason the shapes of the countries and seas were so distorted
that none of the readers of this book would be able to find
anything or recognize familiar countries.

The leading geography of the time was written by a Greek 998. Strabo
living in Rome, named Strabo. It was a delightful narrative phyfdecSie
of wide travels mingled with history, and although it sadly ^^ science
lacked in scientific method, it was for many centuries the
world's standard geography and may still be read with great
pleasure and profit as an ancient book of travel. The work
of Strabo, however, is a landmark disclosing the decline of
ancient science and the end of that great line of scientists
whose achievements made the Hellenistic Age the greatest
age of science in the early world.

Indifference to science at Rome was in marked contrast 999. Enthusi-
with Roman interest in literature. TJie greatest of the leading fn^iSemure^
Romans displayed in some cases an almost pathetic devotion Jonf^ans of

■'_ ^ . Greco-Roman

to literary studies, even while weighed down with the heaviest culture the

responsibilities. Caesar put together a treatise on Latin speech va^dmenof

while crossing the Alps in a palanquin, when his mind must JJl^^rid"^^^^*

have been filled with the problems of his great wars in Gaul.

He dedicated the essay to Cicero, the greatest master of Latin

prose. Such men as these had studied in Athens or Rhodes,

and were deeply versed in the finest works of Greek learning

and literature. Caesar and Cicero and the men of their class

spoke Greek every day among themselves, perhaps more than

they did Latin. In these men Hellenistic civilization and Roman ^

.character had mingled to produce the most cultivated minds

of the ancient world. Among the educated men in the declining

Greek communities of the East, none could rival these finest

of the Romans in cultivation or in power of mind. Indeed,

Greece never produced men of just this type, who ej^hibited

6i4

Ancient Times

1000. Cicero
the type of
the highly
educated man
of the late
Republic ;
his writings
and their
enduring
influence

lOOi. Augus-
tan Age and
literature :
Livy

such a combination of gifts — the highest ability both in public
leadership and in literary achievement.

Of literary studies Cicero said : " Such studies profit youth
and rejoice old age; while they increase happiness in good
fortune, they are in affliction a consolation and a refuge ; they
give us joy at home and they do not hamper us abroad ; they
tarry with us at night time and they go forth with us to
the countryside." Thus spoke the most cultivated man Rome
ever produced, and the ideals of the educated man which he
himself personified have never ceased to exert a powerful in-
fluence upon educated men in all lands. When he failed as a
statesman, a career for which he did not possess the necessary
firmness and practical insight (§957), he devoted himself to
his literary pursuits. As the greatest orator in Roman history,
he had already done much to perfect and beautify Latin prose
in the orations which he delivered in the course of his career
as a lawyer and a statesman. But after his retirement he pro-
duced a group of remarkable essays on oratory, a series of
treatises on conduct — such matters as friendship, old age, and
the like ; and he left behind also several hundred letters which
were preserved by his friends. As one of the last sacrifices of
the civil wars, Cicero had fallen by the hands of Antony's brutal
soldiery (§ 972) ; but his writings were to exert an undying influ-
ence. They made Latin speech one of the most beautiful instru-
ments of human expression, and as an example of the finest
literary style they have influenced the best writing in all the
languages of civilization ever since.

Augustus and a number of the leading men about him had
known Cicero. For them that commingling of Greek and
Roman civilization, which might well be called Ciceronian,
became the leading cultivated influence in their lives. The*
Ciceronian culture of the last days of the dying Republic thus
became the ideal of the early Empire and the Augustan Age.
Augustus had early established two libraries in Rome, and one
of them contained the greatest collection of both Greek and

The First of Two Centuries of Peace 6\^\

Latin books in the ancient world. Men steeped in this Greco- v ^.^

Roman culture now began to feel the influence of the great I-^IlS

events which had built up the vast Roman Empire. As at
Athens in the days of the greatest Athenian power, so the
vision of the greatness of the State stirred the imagination of
thinking men. Livy wrote an enormous history of Rome from
the earliest times, that is to say, from the Trojan War to the
reign of Augustus, in one hundred and forty-two rolls (§751)
— a work which cost him forty years of labor. While it was
beautiful literature, and the fragments which survive still form
fascinating reading, it was very inaccurate history. The careful
historical method that had made Thucydides (§ 667) the greatest
of ancient historians had disappeared.

In the last days of the Republic, in spite of turbulence and 1002. Rise
civil war, Cicero and the men of his time had perfected Latin the Augustan
prose. On the other hand, the greatest of Latin poetry arose ^^^ ' ^^"^^^^
under the inspiration of the early Empire and the universal
peace established by Augustus. Horace, the leading poet of
the time, had been a friend of the assassins of Caesar, and
he had faced the future Augustus on the battlefield of Philippi.
After a dangerous struggle he had saved himself and at last
found security in the era of peace. Having lived through many x

dangers, to rejoice in the general peace, he gained the forgive-
ness and friendship of Augustus. In his youth, although only
the son of a freedman of unknown race, he had studied in
Greece, and he knew the old Greek lyric poets (§ 482) who
had suffered danger and disaster as he himself had done. With
the haunting echoes of old Greek poetry in his soul, he now
found his own voice. Then he began to write of the men and
the life of his own time in a body of verse which forms for
us an imdying picture of the Romans in the days of Augustus.
The poems of Horace will always remain one of the greatest
legacies from the ancient world — a treasury of Roman life as
pictured by a ripe and cultivated mind, unsurpassed even in
the highly developed literature of the Greeks.

6i6 Ancient Times

Virgil, the other great poet of the Augustan Age, had from
the beginning been a warm admirer of the great Caesar and
the young Octavian. When the civil war had deprived Virgil
of his ancestral farm under the shadow of the Alps in the
North, it was restored to him by Augustus. Here, as he looked
out upon his own fields, the poet began to write verses like
those of Theocritus (§ 754), reflecting to us in all its poetic
beauty the rustic life of his time on the green hillsides of Italy.
But these imitations of Greek models would never have given
Virgil his place as one of the greatest poets of the world. As
time passed he gained an exalted vision of the mission of Rome,
and especially of Augustus, as the restorer of world peace.
More than one Latin €pic was already in circulation (§ 904),
but in order to give voice to his vision, Virgil now undertook
the creation of another epic, in which he pictured the wander-
ings of the Trojan hero y^neas from Asia Minor to Italy, where
in the course of many heroic adventures he founded the royal
line of Latium (headpiece, p. 484). From him, according to
the story, were descended the Julian family, the Caesars, whose
latest leader Augustus had saved Rome and established a
world peace.
1004. Char- Unlike the Homeric epics, Virgil's ^neid, as it is called,
^neid ^ was not the outgrowth of an heroic age. It was a tribute to
Augustus, whom the poem artistically placed against a glorious
background of heroic achievement in the Trojan Age, just as
Alexander the Great contrived to do the same for himself
(§ 689). The ^neid was therefore the product of a self-
conscious, literary age — the highly finished work of a literary
artist who now took his place with Horace as one of the great
interpreters of his age. Hardly so penetrating a mind as his
friend Horace, Virgil was perhaps an even greater master of
Latin verse. Deeply admired by the age that produced it, the
^neid has ever since been one of the leading schoolbooks of
the civilized world, and has had an abiding influence on the best
literature of later times.

The First of Two Centuries of Peace 617

Augustus himself also left an account of his deeds. When 1005. Ac-
he was over seventy-five years old, as he felt his end approach- deeds left by
ing, he put together a narrative of his career, which was en- ^"^nc ^ ^^
graved on bronze tablets and set up before his tomb. In the monument
simple dignity of this impressive story we see the career of
Augustus unfolding before us in one grand achievement after
another, rising like a panorama of successive mountain peaks,
in a vision of such grandeur as to make the document prob-
ably the most impressive brief record of a great man's life which
has survived to us from the ancient world. Almost with his
last breath Augustus penned the closing lines of this remark-
able document, and on the nineteenth of August, the month
which bears his name, in the year 14 a.d., the first of the
Roman emperors died.

Section 89. The Line of Augustus and the End of
THE First Century of Peace (14 A.D.-68 a.d.)

Augustus had been in supreme control of the great Roman 1006. The
world for forty-four years ; that is, nearly half a century. Four gors of the
descendants of his family, either by blood or adoption, were to JjJJ,^uf^s
rule for more than another half century, and thus to fill out the (14-^8 a.d.)
first century of peace. The prejudice against one-man power
was still so strong that the writers of this age and their suc-
cessors have transmitted to us very unfair accounts of these
four rulers. Two of them were indeed deserving of the con-
tempt in which they are still held; but the other two were
in many respects able rulers, who did much to improve the
developing government of the Empire.

Augustus had never put forward a law providing for the 1007. Ques-
appointment of his successor or for later successors to his succession;
position. Any prominent Roman citizen might have aspired Tibenus
to the office. Augustus left no son, and one after another his
male heirs had died, among them his grandsons, the sons of
his daughter Julia. He had finally been Qblige4 to ask the.

6i8 Ancient Times

\ ,: . Senate to associate with him his stepson Tiberius, his wife's

\^:C.,-'^^ son by an earlier marriage. Before the death of Augustus,

^ ' Tiberius had therefore been given joint command of the army

and also the tribune's power. The Senate, therefore, at once

appointed him to all his stepfather's powers, and without any

limit as to time.

1008. The Tiberius was an able soldier and an experienced man of
ofrSeriu?" affairs. He gave the provinces wise and efficient governors,
(14-37 A.D.) ^j^(j showed himself a skilled and successful ruler. He did not,

however, possess his stepfather's tact and respect for the old
institutions. He found it very vexatious to carry on joint rule
with a Senate whose power was in reality little more than a
fiction. He felt only contempt for the Roman nobles who
publicly did him homage and secretly slandered him or plotted
his downfall. He likewise despised the Roman populace. Under
Augustus they had continued to go through the form of electing
magistrates and passing laws as in the days of the Republic, but
of course both the magistrates they elected and the laws they
passed had been those proposed to the assemblies by Augustus.
._ , Tiberius, however, no longer allowed the Roman rabble to go

through the farce of voting on what the emperor had already
decided, and even the appearance of a government by the
Roman people thus finally disappeared forever. To complete
his unpopularity in Rome, Tiberius also practiced strict economy
in government and much reduced the funds devoted to public
shows for the amusement of the people. Universally hated in
Rome, greatly afflicted also by bereavements and disappoint-
ments in his private life, Tiberius left the city and spent his last
years in a group of magnificent villas on the lofty island of
Capri, overlooking the Bay of Naples, where he died a disap-
pointed man (37 a.d.).

1009. Calig- As Tiberius had lost his son, the choice for his successor fell
A.i)0 ~^^ upon Gains Caesar, a great-grandson of Augustus, nicknamed

Caligula (" little boot ") by the soldiers among whom he was
brought up. A young man of only twenty-five years, and at

The First of Two Centuries of Peace 619

first very popular in Rome, Caligula was so transformed by his
sense of vast power and by long-continued dissipation that his
mind was crazed. He made his horse a consul, and the enor-
mous wealth saved for the State by Tiberius he squandered in
reckless debauchery and absurd building enterprises. In the
midst of confiscation and murder, this mockery of a reign was
brought to a sudden close by Caligula's own officers, who put
an end to his life in his palace on the Palatine after he had
reigned only four years.

The imperial guards, ransacking the palace after the death loio. The
of Caligula, found in hiding the trembling figure of a nephew Claudius
of Tiberius and uncle of the dead Caligula, named Claudius. (4^ a.d.)
He had always been merely tolerated by his family as a man
both physically and mentally inferior. He was now fifty years
old, and there is no doubt that he was weak-kneed both in
body and in character. But the guards hailed him as emperor,
and the Senate was obliged to consent. Claudius was a great
improvement upon Caligula, although he was easily influenced
by the women of his family and the freedmen officials whom
he had around him. The palace therefore soon became a nest
of plots and intrigues, in which slander, banishment, and poison
played their evil parts.

Nevertheless Claudius accomplished much for the Empire loii.Achieve-
and devoted himself to its affairs. He conducted in person a Claudius:
successful campaign in Britain, and for the first time made its ^^2'in^* °ub
southern portion a province of the Empire. It was this con- lie works;

1 • 1 1 1 1 1 • ITT- 1 • creation of

quest which helped to bnng so much of Latm speech mto the ministers of
English language, for Britain remained a Roman province for ^^^\ ~^^
three and a half centuries. At Rome Claudius was greatly in-
terested in buildings and practical improvements. He built two
vast new aqueducts, together nearly a hundred miles in length,
furnishing Rome with a plentiful supply of fresh water from
the mountains (Fig. 250). At the same time his own officials,
chiefly able Greek freedmen who were aiding him in his duties,
W.<?re beginning to form a kind of cabinet destined finally to

620

Ancient Times

I0I2. Prob-
able assas-
sination of
Claudius and
accession of
Nero (54

A.D.)

give the Empire for the first time a group of efficient ministers,
whom we would call the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secre-
tary of State, and others like them.

The inability of Claudius to select wisely and to control those
who formed his circle was the probable cause of his death. It

Fig. 250. The Aqueduct of the Emperor Claudius

This wonderful aqueduct, built by the Emperor Claudius about the
middle of the first century a. d., is over 40 miles long. About three
fourths of it is subterranean, but the last 10 miles consists of tall arches
of massive masonry, as seen here, supporting the channel in which the
water flowed, till it reached the palace of the emperor on the Palatine
(plan, p. 622). Such ancient Roman aqueducts were so well built that
four of them are still in use at Rome, and they convey to the city a more
plentiful supply of water than any great modern city elsewhere receives

was also the reason why Agrippina, the last of his wives, was
able to push aside the son of Claudius and gain the throne for
her own son Nero, as the successor of Claudius. Not only on
his mother's side, but also on his father's, Nero was descended
from the family of Augustus. His mother had intrusted his
education to the philosopher Seneca, and for the first five years
of his reign, while Seneca was his chief minister, the rule of

The First of Two Centuries of Peace 62 1

Nero was wise and successful. When palace plots and intrigues,
in which Seneca was not without blame, had removed this able
minister from the court and had also banished Nero's strong-
minded mother, Agrippina, he cast aside all restraint and fol-
lowed his own evil nature in a career of such vice and cruelty
that the name of Nero has ever since been regarded as one of
the blackest in all history.

Nero was devoted to art and wished personally to practice it. 1013. The
While the favorites of the palace carried on the government, he Nero's reign
toured the principal cities of Greece as a musical composer,
competing for prizes in dancing, singing, and chariot races. As
the companion of actors, sportsmen, and prize fighters, he even
■:00k part in gladiatorial exhibitions. Becoming more and more
entangled in the meshes of court plots, his cowardly and sus-
picious nature led him to condemn his old teacher, Seneca, to
death, to cause the assassination of the son of Claudius and of
many other innocent and deserving men. In the same way
he was persuaded to take the life of his wife, and to crown his
infamy even had his own mother assassinated. At the same
time his wild extravagance, his excessive taxation in some of
the provinces, and his murders among the rich and noble were
stirring up dangerous dissatisfaction, which was to result in
his fall.

A great disaster, meantime, took place in Rome. A fire broke 1014. The
out among the cheap wooden buildings around the circus (see Rome [I/*
plan, p. 622). It swept over the Palatine Hill, destroying the ^'^'^'^"^
palace of Augustus, leaving only his sleeping room (§ 992), and
then passed on through the city. It burned for a week, wiping
out a large portion of the city, and then breaking out again,
increased the damage. Dark rumors ran through the streets
that Nero himself had set fire to the city that he might rebuild
it more splendidly, and gossip told how he sat watching the
conflagration while giving a musical performance of his own on
the destruction of Troy. There is no evidence to support these
rumors. Under the circumstances, Nero himself welcomed

622

Ancient Times

another version, which accused the Christians of having started
the fire, and he executed a large number of them with horrible
tortures. At vast expense, to which much of his excessive taxa-
tion was due, he undertook the rebuilding of the city, and he
erected an enormous palace for himself called the " Golden

Map of Rome under the Emperors

House," extending across the ground where the Colosseum
now stands, from the east end of the Forum eastward and
northeastward across the Esquiline Hill and over a large section
of the city. At the entrance was a colossal bronze statue of
himself over a hundred feet high (Fig. 262). There can be no
doubt that Nero's interest in art was sincere and that he really
desired to make Rome a beautiful city.

The First of Two Centunes of Peace 623

The dissatisfaction at Rome and Nero's treatment of the 1015. The
only able men around him deprived him of support there. Then ^^^ \^
the provinces began to chafe under heavy taxation. When ^^^*. ^^f^^
the discontent in the provinces finally broke out in open the end of '
revolt, led especially by Galba, a Roman governor in Spain, tury of peace
Nero showed no ability to meet the revolt. The rebellious ^^^ ^'^"^
troops marched on Rome. Nero went into hiding, and on hear-
ing that the Senate had voted his death, he theatrically stabbed
himself, and, attitudinizing to the last, he passed away uttering
the words, " What an artist dies in me ! " Thus died in 68 a. d.
the last ruler of the line of Augustus, and with him ended the
first century of peace (31 B.C.-68 a.d.); for several Roman
commanders now struggled for the throne and threatened to
involve the Empire in another long civil war.

In spite of the misrule which had attended the reigns of two 1016. Last-
of the line of Augustus, the good accomplished in the reigns dimngThe*^
of Tiberius and Claudius could not be wholly undone. Both at juHa^V^^-
Rome and in the provinces, the government had been much deification of

the emperors

improved. But, as we have seen, the Roman State was fast
becoming a monarchy in which the crown was bequeathed
from father to son. This process had been hastened by the
fact that the Caesars, as the emperors were now called, had
gained a position of unique reverence. Beginning with Julius
Caesar, the emperors,^ like Alexander the Great, were deified,
and their worship was widely practiced throughout the Empire.
It was indeed an obligation of citizenship to pay divine homage
to the emperor. The supreme place which he now occupied was
not to be endangered by the brief struggles which followed the
death of Nero, and the wide rule of the Roman emperor, even
after the fall of Julius Caesar's line, was to maintain another cen-
tury of prosperity and peace. To this second century of peace
in the R.oman Empire we must devote another chapter.

1 Besides JuUus Caesar and Augustus, Claudius was the only emperor of the
Julian Hne who was deified. Tiberius failed of it because of his unpopularity, and
Caligula and Nero, of course, because of their infamous characters.

624 Ancient Times

QUESTIONS

Section ^"j. What kind of a period did the rule of Augustus
begin? What was his attitude toward the RepubUc? What chief
oflfices and powers did he receive? From what body? What were
his tides ? Had the Republic survived ? What body was continuing
the power of the Republic ? Was this power likely to survive ? Who
was the real ruler? What influences tended to make him a sovereign ?
What was the policy of Augustus on the frontiers ? What did he do
with the army? How had the provinces, especially Greece, suffered?
What did Augustus attempt to do about it? How did Augustus im-
prove the rule of the provinces ? Describe his financial improvements.
What beneficial effects in business were observable ? Was the Medi-
terranean world about to become a nation ?

Section 88. What kind of life did Augustus desire for Italy?
What did he want the position of Italy to be? How had Rome be-
come a new world ? What improvements did Augustus introduce in
the city? on the. Palatine? in the Forum? What other buildings
were erected ? What architectural influences prevailed ? Were there
any creative artists in sculpture and painting? What can you say of
science in Rome ? What work did Strabo produce ? Tell about the
attitude of educated Romans toward literature. What was Cicero's
feeling about literature, and what did he write ? What has been the
influence of his writing? What was his influence in the Augustan
Age? What was Rome's position in literature? What can you say
of Livy? of Horace? of Virgil? Discuss the leading work of Virgil.
What remarkable narrative did Augustus himself write ?

Section 89. How long were Augustus and the four following
rulers of his line in power ? Who succeeded Augustus ? Describe his
rule. What became of the old power of the people under Tiberius ?
Who succeeded Tiberius, and what can you say of his reign ? • De-
scribe the accession of Claudius. What did he accomplish? Who
succeeded Claudius? How had Nero been educated? Describe his
reign and character. What catastrophe overtook Rome? Describe
his end and its causes. What period closed with his death ? Give its
date. What can you say of the results of the rule of the Julian line?
What exalted station was given to the Roman emperors? What
period followed the disappearance of the Julian line?

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE SECOND CENTURY OF PEACE AND THE CIVILIZATION
OF THE EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE

Section 90. The Emperors of the Second Century
OF Peace (beginning 69 a.d.)

For about a year after the death of Nero the struggle among 1017. Advent

the leading military commanders for the throne of the Caesars century of "

threatened to involve the Empire in another long civil war. Rf^^-^^^\

Fortunately the troops of Vespasian, a very able commander of Vespasian
in the East, were so strong that he was easily victorious, and
in 69 A. D. he was declared emperor by the Senate. With him,

Note. The above headpiece shows us the body of a citizen of Pompeii who
perished when the city was destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius in 79 a.d.
(§ 1034). The fine volcanic ashes settled around the man's body, and these rain-
soaked ashes made a cast of his figure before it had perished. After the body
had perished it left in the hardened mass of ashes a hollow mold, which the
modern excavators poured full of plaster, and thus secured a cast of the figure
of the unfortunate man just as he lay smothered by the deadly ashes which
overwhelmed him over eighteen hundred years ago.

625

626

Afvcient Times

1018. Rebel-
lion of the
Jews and de-
struction of
Jerusalem
(70A.D.)

1019. Two

great tasks
of the em-
perors : fron-
tier defenses
and efficient
government
organization

1020. The
Roman Em-
pire, the
bulwark of
Mediterra-
nean civiliza-
tion against
northern
barbarism

therefore, began a second century of peace under a line of
able emperors who brought the Empire to the highest level of
prosperity and happiness. We shall first sketch the political
and military activities of these emperors and then turn to the
life and civilization of the Empire as a whole during the second
century of peace.

Even though remote wars broke out on the frontiers or in
distant provinces, they did not disturb the peace of the Empire
as a whole. Before his election as emperor, Vespasian had been
engaged in crushing a revolt of the fanatical Jews in Palestine,
and the next year his able son Titus captured- and destroyed
Jerusalem amid frightful massacres which exterminated large
numbers of the rebellious Jews (70 a.d.). It was later found
necessary to forbid all Jews from entering their beloved city,
consecrated by so many sacred memories ; and it was made a
Roman colony under a different name. Judea at the same time
became a Roman province.

Two great tasks were accomplished by the emperors of the
age we are discussing: first, that of perfecting the system of
defenses on the frontiers, and second, that of more fully devel-
oping the government and administration of the Empire. Let
us look first at the frontiers. On the south the Empire was
protected by the Sahara and on the west by the Atlantic ; but
on the north and east it was open to attack. The shifting Ger-
man tribes constantly threatened the northern frontiers ; while
in the east the frontier on the Euphrates was made chronically
unsafe by the Parthians, the only civilized power still uncon-
quered by Rome (see map I, p. 636).

The pressure of the barbarians on the northern frontiers,
which we recall in the time of Marius (§ 936), was the continu-
ance of the vast movement with which we are already ac-
quainted — the tide of migration which long before had swept
the Indo-European peoples to the Mediterranean (see diagram,
Fig. 112) and had carried the Greeks and the Romans into
their two Mediterranean peninsulas. Mediterranean civilization

The Second Century of Peace 627

was thus in constant danger of being overwhelmed from the
North, just as the splendid ^Egean civilization was once sub-
merged by the incoming of the Greeks (Chap. IX). The
great problem for future humanity was whether the Roman
emperors would be able to hold oif the barbarians long enough
so that in course of time these rude Northerners might gain
enough of Mediterranean civilization to respect it, and to pre-
serve at least some of it for mankind in the future.

The Flavian family, as we call Vespasian and his two sons, 1021. The
did much to make the northern frontiers safe. After the mild in^of thT
and kindly rule of Vespasian's son, Titus (§ 1018), the latter's frontiers b
brother, Vespasian's second son Domitian, adopted the frontier the Flavian

emperors

lines laid down by Augustus and planned their fortification (69-96 a. d.)
with walls wherever necessary. He began the protection of the
exposed border between the upper Rhine and the upper
Danube. In Britain, Domitian even pushed the frontier further
northward and then erected a line of defenses. But on the
lower Danube he failed to meet the dangerous power of the
growing kingdom of Dacia. He even sent gifts to the Dacian
king, intended to keep him quiet and satisfied. By this unwise
policy Domitian created a difficult problem in this region, to be
solved by his successors (see map I, p. 636).

The brief and quiet reign of the senator Nerva, who was 1022. Trajan
selected by the Senate to succeed Domitian (96 a.d.), left the barbarians^
whole danp^erous situation on the lower Danube to be met by ?f *^^ \o^t.x

° -' Danube and

the brilliant soldier Trajan, who followed Nerva in 98 a.d. conquers
He quickly discerned that there would be no safety for the io6a.d.)°
Empire along the Danube frontier, except by crossing the river
and crushing the Dacian kingdom. Bridging the Danube with
boats and hewing his way through wild forests, Trajan led his
army through obstacles never before overcome by Roman
troops. He captured one stronghold of the Dacians after an-
other, and in two wars finally destroyed their capital. There-
upon the Dacian king and his leading men took their own lives.
Trajan built a massive stone bridge (Fig. 251), across the

628

Ancient Times

Danube, made Dacia a Roman province, and sprinkled plenti-
ful Roman colonies on the north side of the great river. The
descendants of these colonists in the same region still call them-
selves Roumanians and their land Roumania, a form of the

Fig. 251. The Emperor Trajan sacrificing at his New
Bridge across the Danube

In the background we see the heavy stone piers of the bridge, support-
ing the wooden upper structure, built with strong railings. In the fore-
ground is the altar, toward which the emperor advances from the
right, with a flat dish in his right hand, from which he is pouring a
libation upon the altar. At the left of the altar stands a priest, naked to
the waist and leading an ox to be slain for the sacrifice. A group of the
emperor's officers approach from the left, bearing army standards.
The scene is sculptured with many others on the column of Trajan at
Rome (Fig. 263), and is one of the best examples of Roman relief
sculpture of the second century (§ 1053)

word " Roman."' Trajan's vigorous policy quieted all trouble
along the lower Danube for a long time.
1033. Tra- The military glory of Rome, which had declined since the

theParthians ^ays of Caesar, revived in splendor under this great soldier
("5- emperor. Trajan then turned his attention to the eastern

frontier, extending from the east end of the Black Sea south-
ward to the Peninsula of Sinai. In the northern section of this

The Second Century of Peace

629

frontier a large portion of the boundary was formed by the
upper Euphrates River. Rome thus held the western half of
the Fertile Crescent, but it had never conquered the eastern
half, with Assyria and Babylonia (see map I, p. 636). Here the
powerful kingdom of the Parthians, kindred of the Persians,
had maintained itself with ups and downs since the days of
the early Seleucids, for three hundred and fifty years. Twice

Fig. 252.

Restoration of the Roman Fortified Wall on
THE German Frontier

This masonry wall, some three hundred miles long, protected the north-
ern boundary of the Roman Empire between the upper Rhine and the
upper Danube, where it was most exposed to German attack. At short
intervals there were blockhouses along the wall, and at points of great
danger strongholds and barracks (Fig. 254) for the shelter of garrisons

before they had defeated Roman expeditions against them.
Trajan, however, dreamed of a great oriental empire like that of
Alexander. He led an army against the Parthians and defeated
them. He added Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria to the
Empire as new provinces. He visited the ruins of Babylon to
behold the spot where, four hundred and forty years before,
Alexander had died ; but he said he '' saw nothing worthy of
such fame, but only heaps of rubbish, stones, and ruins"
(Fig. III). Then a sudden rebellion in his rear forced him

630

Ancient Times

1024. Ha-
drian (117-

138 A. D.)

completes
the frontier
defenses

■^<-^ ^XXX^lcTW-

.tAicc O'fi^

■Tt.y

rcK]*r'--<»>l ve-

to a dangerous retreat Weakened by sickness and bitterly
realizing that his great expedition was a failure, he died
in Asia Minor while returning to Rome (117 a.d.).

. , -^ ,-_ , _ Trajan's succes-

sor, Hadrian, was
another able sol-
dier, but he had
also the judgment
of a statesman.
He made no effort
to continue Tra-
jan's conquests in
the East. On the
contrary, he wisely
gave them all up
except the Penin-
sula of Sinai (see
map I, p. 636) and
brought the fron-
tier back to the
Euphrates. But
he retained Dacia
and strengthened
the whole northern
frontier, especially
the long barrier
reaching from the
Rhine to the Dan-
ube, where the
completion of the continuous wall (Fig. 252) was largely due
to him. He built a similar wall along the northern boundary
across Britain. The line of both these walls is still visible.
As a result of these wise measures and the impressive victories
of Trajan, the frontiers were safe and quiet for a long time.
Nor was there any serious disturbance until a great overflow

'-:^

x-rtcrukii

Fig. 253. Letter of Apion, a young Sol-
dier IN THE Roman Army, to his Father,
Epimachos, in Egypt*

The Second Century of Peace 631

of tha northern barbarians (167 a.d.) in the reign of Marcus
Aurelius brought to an end the second century of peace.

Under Trajan and Hadrian the army which defended these 1025. The
frontiers was the greatest and most skillfully managed organiza- xSjan and^
tion of the kind which the ancient world had ever seen. Drawn H^'^"^"
from all parts of the Empire, the army now consisted of all

* This Egyptian youth, Apion, having enlisted in the Roman army
in company with other boys from his little village in Egypt, bade his
family good-by and embarked on a great government ship from Alex-
andria for Italy. After a dangerous voyage he arrived safely at Mise-
num, the Roman war harbor near Naples, and hastened ashore in his
new uniform to have a small portrait of himself painted (§ 1054 and
Plate VIII, p. 654) and to send his father the letter on the opposite page.
It was written for him in Greek, on papyrus, in a beautiful hand by a
hired public letter writer, and reads as follows (with the present author's
explanations in brackets) : " Apion to Epimachos his father and lord,
many good wishes ! First of all I hope that you are in good health, '
and that all goes well with you and with my sister and her daughter
and my brother always. I thank the lord Serapis [a great Egyptian
god] that he saved me at once when I was in danger in the sea. When
I arrived at Misenum, I received from the emperor three gold pieces
[about fifteen dollars] as road money, and I am getting on fine. I beg
of you, my lord father, write me a line, first about yOur own well-being,
second about that of my brother and sister, and third in order that
I may devotedly greet your hand, because you brought me up well
and I may therefore hope for rapid promotion, the gods willing. Give
my regards to Capiton [some friend], and my brother and sister, and
Serenilla and my friends. I send you by Euktemon my little portrait.
My [new Roman] name is Antonius Maximus. I hope that it may go
well with you." On the left margin, where we see two vertical lines
inserted, just as we are accustomed to insert them, Apion's chums (the
other village boys who enlisted with him) sent home their regards.
Folded and sealed as in Fig. 210, the letter went by the great Roman
military post, arrived safely, and was read by the young soldier's waiting
father and family in the little village on the Nile over seventeen hun-
dred years ago (§ 1025). Then years later, after the old father had died,
it was lost in the household rubbish, and there the modern excavators
found it among the crumbling walls of the house (cf. Fig. 211). The
ancient letter had some holes in it, but with it was another letter written
by our soldier to his sister years later, after he had long been stationed
somewhere on the Roman frontier (§ 1025) and had a wife and children
of his own. And that is all that the rubbish heaps of the village on the
Nile have preserved of this lad who entered the army of the great
Roman Empire in the second century a.d.

632

Ancient Times

possible nationalities, like the British army in the Great European
War. A legion of Spaniards might be stationed on the Euphrates,
or a group of youths from the Nile might spend many years in
sentry duty on the wall that barred out the Germans. Although
far from home, such young men were enabled to communicate
easily with their friends at home by a very efficient military

Fig. 254. Glimpses of a Roman Frontier Stronghold
(Restored after Waltze-Schulze)

Above, at the left, the main gate of the fort ; the other three views show
the barracks (cf. Fig. 251)

postal system covering the whole Empire like a vast network.
We are still able to hold in our hands the actual letters written
from a northern post by a young Egyptian recruit in the Roman
army to his father and sister in a distant little village on the
Nile (Fig. 253). When not on sentry duty somewhere along
the frontier line, such a young soldier lived with his comrades
in one of the large garrisons maintained at the most important
frontier points, with fine barracks and living quarters for officers

The Second Century of Peace 633

and men (Fig. 254). The discipline necessary to keep the troops

always ready to meet the barbarians outside the walls was never

relaxed. Besides regular drill, the troops were also employed in

making roads, building bridges, aqueducts, and public buildings

or in repairing the frontier walls.

Meantime the Empire had been undergoing important changes io26.0rgani-

within. The emperors developed a system of government de- ^*^ent

partments already foreshadowed in the time of Claudius (§ ion), government
ir J \ J departments

To manage them, they appointed Roman knights. There thus
grew up a body of experienced administrators as heads of de-
partments and their helpers, who carried on the government of
the Empire. It was the wise and efficient Hadrian who accom-
plished the most in perfecting this organization of the govern-
ment business. Thus after Rome had been for more than three
centuries in control of the Mediterranean world, it finally pos-
sessed a well-developed government organization such as had
been in operation in the Orient since the days of the pyramid
builders (§§ 74-75).

Among many changes, one of the most important was the 1027. Change
abolition of the system of " farming " taxes, to be collected by tax^famers to

private individuals — a system which had caused both the government
^ J tax collectors

Greeks (§ 623) and the Romans (§ 889) much trouble. Gov-
ernment tax collectors now gathered in the taxes of the great
Mediterranean world. It is interesting to recall that such a
system had been fully organized on the Nile over three thou-
sand years before the Romans possessed it (§ 74 and Fig. 40).

With the complete control of these departments entirely in 1028. in-
his own hands, the power of the emperor had much increased. po^^er1)f the
From being the first citizen of the State like Augustus, ruling emperor and
jointly with the Senate, the emperor had thus become a sover- the Senate
eign, whose power was so little limited by the Senate that he
was not far from being an absolute monarch. Furthermore, the
emperors of the second century of peace secured laws and
regulations which made the rule of the emperor legal, although
they unfortunately passed no laws providing for a successor

634 Ancient Times

on the death of an emperor, and dangerous conflict might ensue
whenever an emperor died.

1029. Italy At the same time an important change in the position of
leadership Italy was taking place. The condition of the farmers was now
the leveur ^° ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ danger of the complete disappearance of
the provinces free population in the country districts of Italy! Two of the

emperors, Nerva and Trajan, even set aside large sums as capi-
tal to be loaned at a low rate of interest to farmers needing
money. This interest was to be used to support poor free
children in the towns of Italy in the hope that a new body
of free country population might be thus built up. This re-
markable effort, one of the earliest known State charities, was,
however, not successful. As Italy was furthermore not a manu-
facturing country, its citizenship declined. Meantime a larger
idea of the Empire had displaced the conception of Augustus,
who had desired to see the Empire a group of states led and
dominated by Italy. Whole provinces, especially in the West,
had been granted citizenship, or a modified form of it, by the
emperors. Influential citizens in the provinces were often given
high rank and office at Rome. As a result there had now
grown up a Mediterranean nation, as we have seen it fore-
shadowed even in the time of Augustus, and Italy dropped to
a level with the provinces.

1030. Rise Not only did the subjects of this vast State pay their taxes

of a system . , , , hi,,

of law for the mto the same treasury, but they were now controlled by the
whole Empire game laws. The lawyers of Rome under the emperors we are
now discussing were the most gifted legal minds the world had
ever seen. They expanded the narrow «'/j-law of Rome that it
might meet the needs of the whole Mediterranean world. They
laid the foundations for a vast imperial code of laws, the great-
est work of Roman genius. In spirit, these laws of the Empire
were most fair, just, and humane. Antoninus Pius, the kindly
emperor who followed Hadrian, maintained that an accused
person must be held innocent until proved guilty by the evi-
dence, a principle of law which has descended to us and is

The Second Century of Peace 635

still part of our own law. In the same spirit was the protection
of wives and children from the arbitrary cruelty of the father
of the house, who in earlier centuries held the legal right to
treat the members of his family like slaves. Even slaves now
enjoyed the protection of the law, and the slave could not be
put to death by the master as formerly, although we should
notice that in some important matters the Roman law treated
a citizen according to his social rank, showing partiality to the
noble in preference to the common citizen. These laws did
much to unify the peoples of the Mediterranean world into a
single nation ; for they were now regarded by the law not as
different nations but as subjects of the same great State, which
extended to them all, the same protection of justice, law, and
order. At the same time the earlier laws long developed by the
older city-states were not interfered with by Rome, where they
did not conflict with the interests of the Empire.

The Empire as a whole was still organized in provinces, 1031. Gov-
which steadily increased in number. Within each province by the'prov-^
far the large majority of the people lived in towns and cities. "}ces; sur-
Such a city and its outlying communities formed a city-state people's
like that which we found in early Greece. Each city had the public affairs
right to elect its own governing officials and to carry on its own
local affairs. The people still took an interest in local aifairs,
and there was a good deal of rivalry for election to the public
offices. On the walls at Pompeii (Fig. 255) we still find the
appeals of rival candidates for votes. At the same time each
city was under the sovereignty of the Roman Empire and the
control of the Roman governor of the province.

Able and conscientious governors were now controlling affairs 1032. Close
all over the Empire. The letters written to Trajan by the the^provinces
younger Pliny, governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, regarding ^^ *^* ^"^"
the interests of his province reveal to us both his own faithful- decline of the
ness and the enormous amount of provincial business which interest
received the emperor's personal attention. Fig. 253 shows us
how such a letter looked. Such attention by emperors like

636

Ancient Times

Trajan and Hadrian relieved the communities of much responsi-
bility for their own affairs. Hadrian traveled for years among
the provinces and became very familiar with their needs.
Hence the local communities inclined more and more to depend
upon the emperor, and interest in public affairs declined. Along
with growing imperial control of the provinces, there thus began
a decline in the sense of responsibility for public welfare. This
was eventually a serious cause of general decay, as we shall see.

1033. The

peoples of
the Roman
Empire

1034. Pom-
peii, a pro-
vincial city
of the early
Roman
Empire

Section 91. The Civilization of the Early Roman
Empire : the Provinces

Here was a world of sixty-five to a hundred million souls
girdling the entire Mediterranean. Had human vision been able
to penetrate so far, we might have stood at the Strait of Gibral-
tar and followed these peoples as our eyes swept along the
Mediterranean coasts through Africa, Asia, and Europe, and
thus back to the Strait again. On our right in Africa would
'have been Moors, North Africans, and Egyptians ; in the east-
ern background, Arabs, Jews, Phoenicians, Syrians, Armenians,
and Hittites; and as our eyes returned through Europe,
Greeks, Italians, Gauls, and Iberians (Spaniards) ; while north
of these were the Britons and some Germans within the
frontier lines. All these people were of course very different
from one another in native manners, clothing, and customs,
but they all enjoyed Roman protection and rejoiced in the far-
reaching Roman peace. For the most part, as we have seen,
they lived in cities, and the life of the age was prevailingly a
city life, even though many of the cities were small.

Fortunately one of the provincial cities has been preserved
to us with much that we might have seen there if we could
have visited it nearly two thousand years ago. The little city
of Pompeii, covered with volcanic ashes in the brief reign of
Titus (79 A.D.), still shows us the very streets and houses, the
forum and the public buildings, the shops and the markets,

The Second Century of Peace

637

and a host of other things very much as we might have found
them if we had been able to visit the place before the disaster
(Fig. 255). We can look down long streets, where the chariot
wheels have worn deep ruts in the pavement; we can enter
dining rooms with charming paintings still on the walls

Fig. 255. A Street in Ancient Pompeii as.it appears To-day

The pavement and sidewalk are in perfect condition, as when they
were first covered by the falling ashes (§ 1034). At the left is a public
fountain, and in the foreground is a street crossing. Of the buildings
on this street only half a story still stands, except at the left, where we
see the entrances of two shops, with the tops of the doors in position
and the walls preserved to the level of the second floor above

(Fig. 197) ; we can look into the bakers' shops with the charred
bread still in the ovens and the flour mills standing silent
and deserted (Fig. 256); or we can peep into kitchens with
the cooking utensils still scattered about (Fig. 243) and the
cooking hearth in perfect order for building another fire. The
very life of the people in the early Roman Empire seems to

638 Ancient Times

rise before us as we tread the now silent streets (Fig. 255) of
this wonderfully preserved place.

1035. im- Pompeii was close beside the Greek cities of southern Italy,
proved ^^ ^^ ^^ onct, discover that the place was essentially Hellen-

means oi *^ ■'

intercourse: jstic in its life and art. Indeed, from southern Italy eastward

Roman roads

and bridges we should have found the life of the world controlled by Rome
to be simply the natural outgrowth of Hellenistic life and civili-
zation. In some matters there had been great progress. This
was especially true of intercourse and rapid communication.
Everywhere the magnificent Roman roads, massively paved
with smooth stone, like a town street (Fig. 255), led straight
over the hills and across the rivers by imposing bridges. Some
of these bridges still stand and are in use to-day (Fig. 260).
Near the cities there was much traffic on such a highway.

1036. Traffic One met the ponderous coach of the Roman governor, per-
highway h^ps returning from his province to Rome. The curtains are

drawn and the great man is comfortably reading or dictating
to his stenographer. Behind him trots a peddler on a donkey,
which he quickly draws to one side to make room for a cohort
of Roman legionaries marching with swinging stride, their
weapons gleaming through a cloud of dust. Following them
rides an officer accompanied by a shackled prisoner going up
to Rome for trial. He is a Christian teacher named Paul
(§ 1068). A young dandy exhibiting the paces of his fine horse
to two ladies riding in a palanquin, grudgingly vacates the road
before a rider of the imperial post who comes clattering down
the next hill at high speed. Often the road is cumbered with
long lines of donkeys laden with bales of goods or caravans of
heavy wagons creaking and groaning under their heavy loads
of merchandise — the freight trains of the Roman Empire.
As for passenger trains, the traveler must resort to the horse
coach or small special carriage or ride his own horse. The
speed of travel and communication was fully as high as that
maintained in Europe and America a century ago, before the
introduction of the steam railway, and the roads were better.

The Second Century of Peace

639

Indeed, the good Roman roads were a great advance over
the Hellenistic Age. By sea, however, the chief difference
was the freedom from the old-time pirates (§ 949). From the
splendid harbor laid out at the mouth of the Tiber by Claudius,

1037. Navi-
gation and
shipping

Fig. 256. Bakery with Millstones still in Position at
Pompeii

In a court beside the bakery we see the mills for grinding the baker's
flour. Each mill is an hourglass-shaped stone, which is hollow, the
upper part forming a funnel-shaped hopper into which the grain is
poured. The lower part of the stone is an inverted funnel placed over
a cone-shaped stone inside it. The grain drops between the inner stone
and the outer, and when the outer stone is turned by a long timber
inserted in its side, the grain is ground between the two

the traveler could take a large and comfortable ship for Spain
and land there in a week. The Roman whose son was studying
in Athens dispatched a bank draft for the youth's university
expenses, and a week later the boy could be spending the
money. A Roman merchant could send a letter to his agent

640

Ancient Times

1038. Com-
merce from
the Atlantic
to India and
from the
Baltic to the
Mediter-
ranean

in Alexandria in ten days. The huge government corn ships
that plied regularly between the Roman harbors and Alexandria
were stately vessels carrying several thousand tons. They could
accommodate an Egyptian obelisk weighing from three to four
hundred tons which the emperor desired to erect in Rome
(§ 995), besides a large cargo of grain and several hundred
passengers. Good harbors had everywhere been equipped with
docks, and lighthouses modeled on that at Alexandria guided
the mariners into every harbor. In winter, however, sea
traffic stopped.

Under these circumstances business flourished as never be-
fore. The good roads led merchants to trade beyond the
frontiers and to find new markets. Goods found their way
from Italy even to the northern shores of Europe and Britain,
whence great quantities of tin passed up the Seine and down
the Rhone to Marseilles. At the other end of the Empire the
discovery of the seasonal winds in the Indian Ocean led to a
great increase of trade with India, and there was a fleet of a
hundred and twenty ships plying regularly across the Indian
Ocean between the Red Sea and the harbors of India. The
wares which they brought crossed the desert by caravan from
the Red Sea to the Nile and were then shipped west from the
docks of Alexandria, which still remained the greatest commer-
cial city on the Mediterranean, the Liverpool of the Roman
Empire. It shipped besides East Indian luxuries (§ 733)
Egyptian paper (papyrus), linen, rich embroideries, the finest
of glassware (§ 83), great quantities of grain for Rome, and
a host of other things. There was a proverb that you could
get everything at Alexandria except snow. Along the northern
roads of the Eastern world was the caravan connection with
China which continued to bring silk goods to the Mediter-
ranean. It will be seen then that a vast network of commerce
covered the ancient world from the frontiers of China and the
coast of India on the east to Britain and the harbors of the
Atlantic on the west.

The Second Century of Peace 64 1

Both business and pleasure now made travel very common, 1039. Fre-
and a wide acquaintance with the world was not unusual. The ?ravd but
Roman citizen of means and education made his tour of lack of hotels
the Mediterranean much as the modern sight-seer does. Having
arrived in the provincial town, however, he found no good
hotels, and if he did not sleep in his own roomy coach or a
tent carried by his servants, he was obliged to pass the night
in untidy rooms over some shop, the keeper of which enter-
tained travelers. More often, however, the traveler of birth
and means brought with him letters of introduction, which
procured him entertainment at some wealthy private house.

For even in the provincial town the traveler found a group 1040. Society
of successful men of business and public affairs who had gained jnces^ ^^ ^
wealth and had been given the rank of Roman knights.
Among them now and again was one of especial prominence
who had been given senatorial rank by the emperor. Below
the Senators and knights there was a free population of
merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, and craftsmen. Following
a custom as old as the end of the Athenian Empire, these men
were organized into numerous guilds, societies, and clubs, each
trade or calling by itself. These societies were in some ways
much like our labor unions. They were chiefly intended for
mutual benefit of the members in their occupations ; some of
them also aided in social life, in the celebration of popular
holidays, and the society treasury paid the funeral expenses
when a member died, just as some societies among us do. As
likely as not the richest and most influential man of the place
was a freedman. There was in every large town a great
number of freedmen, and they carried on an important share
of the business of the Empire.

As the traveler walked about such a town he found every- 1041. Public
where impressive evidences of the generous interest of the and schools
citizens. There were fountains, theaters, music halls, baths, UJ^es^ ^'^°^'
gymnasiums, and schools, erected by wealthy men and given
to the community. The most famous among such men was

642

Ancient Times

Fig. 257. ScRiBBLiNGs OF Sicilian

Schoolboys on a Brick in the

Days of the Roman Empire

In passing a brickyard, these schoolboys
of seventeen hundred years ago amused
themselves in scribbling school exercises
in Greek on the soft clay bricks before
they were baked. At the top a little boy
who was still making capitals carefully
wrote the capital letter S (Greek 2) ten
times, and under it the similar letter K, also
ten times. These he followed by the words
"turtle" (XEAfiNA), "mill" (MTAA), and
"pail" (KAAOS), all in capitals. Then an
older boy, who could do more than write
capitals, has pushed the little chap aside
and proudly demonstrated his superiority
by writing in two lines an exercise in tongue
gymnastics (like " Peter Piper picked a peck
of pickled peppers," etc.) which in our let-
ters is as follows :

Nai neai nea naia neoi temon, hos neoi ha naus
This means : " Boys cut new planks for a
new ship, that the ship might float." A
third boy then added two lines at the bot-
tom. The brick illustrates the spread of
Greek (§727) as well as provincial educa-
tion under the Roman Empire (§ 1041)

Herodes Atticus, who
built a magnificent con-
cert hall (Fig. 183, /) for
Athens. He has been
called the " Andrew
Carnegie " of his time.
In the market place
were statues of such
donors, with inscrip-
tions expressing the
gratitude of the people.
The boys and girls of
these towns found open
to them schools with
teachers paid by the
government, where all
those ordinary branches
of study which we have
found in the Hellen-
istic Age were taught
(Fig. 257). The boy
who turned to business
could engage a stenog-
rapher to teach him
shorthand, and the
young man who wished
higher instruction could
still find university
teachers at Alexandria
and Athens, and also
at a number of younger
universities in both
East and West, espe-
cially the new university
established by Hadrian

The Secorid Century of Peace 643

at Rome and called the Athenaeum. Thus the cultivated
traveler found men of education and literary culture wher-
ever he went.

To such a traveler wandering in Greece and looking back 1042. The
some six hundred years to the Age of Pericles or the Persian eier in the ^
Wars of Athens, Greece seemed to belong to a distant and ^^ Athens'^^
ancient world, of which he had read in the histories of Thu-
cydides and Herodotus (§§ 567, 667). Dreaming of those
ancient days when Rome was a little market town on the Tiber,
he might wander along the foot of the Acropolis and catch a
vision of vanished greatness as it was in the days of Themis-
tocles and Pericles. He could stroll through the porch of the
Stoics (§ 761) and renew pleasant memories of his own student
days when as a youth his father had permitted him to study
there; or he might take a walk out to the Academy, where
he had once listened to the teachings of Plato's successors.

At Delphi too he found a vivid story of the victories of 1043. The
Hellas in the days of her greatness — a story told in marble elerinthe
treasuries and votive monuments, the thanksgiving gifts of the ■^^^^•' ^^^P^^
Greeks to Apollo (§ 490 and Fig. 172). As the Roman visitor
stood there among the thickly clustered monuments, he noticed
many an empty pedestal, and he recalled how the villas of his
friends at home were now adorned with the statues which had
once occupied those empty pedestals. The Greek cities which
had brought forth such things were now poor and helpless,
commercially and politically, in spite of the rich heritage of
civilization which they had bequeathed to the Romans.

As the traveler passed eastward through the flourishing 1044. The
cities of Asia Minor and Syria, he might feel justifiable pride in eler in the
what Roman rule was accomplishing. In the western half of Minor and^
the Fertile Crescent, especially on the east of the Jordan, where Syria
there had formerly been only a nomad wilderness (§ 135), there
were now prosperous towns, with long aqueducts, with baths,
theaters, basilicas, and imposing public buildings, of which
the ruins even at the present day are astonishing. All

644

Ancient Times

1045. The

Roman trav-
eler in the
East: Par-
thia, Assyria,
and Baby-
lonia

these towns were not only linked together by the fine roads we
have mentioned, but they were likewise connected with Rome
by other fine roads leading entirely across Asia Minor and the
Balkan Peninsula.

Beyond the desert behind these towns lay the troublesome
Parthian Empire. The educated Roman had read how over five
hundred years earlier Xenophon, and later Alexander the Great,

Fig. 258. Roman Amphitheater seen across the Huts of a
Modern North African Village

The town which once supported a public place of amusement like this

has given way to a squalid village, and the whole region west of Carthage

has to a large extent relapsed into barbarism

had passed by the heaps of ruins which were once Nineveh
out yonder on the Tigris (Fig. 203), and he knew from several
Greek histories and the report of Trajan (§ 1023) that the ruin-
ous buildings of Babylon lay still farther down toward the sea
on the Euphrates. Trajan's effort to conquer all that country
having failed (§ 1023), the Roman traveler made no effort to
extend his tour beyond the frontier out into these foreign lands.
But he could take a great Roman galley at Antioch and
cross over to Alexandria, where a still more ancient world

The Second Century of Peace

645

awaited him. In the vast lighthouse (§ 733), over four hun- 1046. The
dred years old and visible for hours before he reached the traveferin
harbor, he recognized the model of the Roman lighthouses *^ ^^^^ •
he had seen. Here our traveler found himself among a
group of wealthy Greek and Roman tourists on the Nile.
As they left the magnificent buildings of Hellenistic Alex-
andria, their voyage up the river carried them at once into

Fig. 259. Ruins of Roman Baths at Bath, England

There are hot springs at Bath, England, and here the Roman colonists
in Britain developed a fashionable watering place. In recent years
the soil and rubbish which, through the centuries, had collected over
the old Roman buildings have been removed, and we can get some
idea of how they were arranged. The picture represents a model of
a part of the ruins. To the right is a large quadrangular pool, 83 by
40 feet in size, and to the left a circular bath. Over the whole a fine
hall was built, with recesses on either side of the big pool where one
might sit and talk with his friends

the midst of an earlier world — the earliest world of which
they knew. All about them were buildings which were thou-
sands of years old before Rome was founded. Like our
modern fellow citizens touring the same land, many of them
were merely curious idlers of the fashionable world. They
berated the slow mails, languidly discussed the latest news
from Rome, while with indolent curiosity they visited the
Pyramids of Gizeh, lounged along the temple lakes and
fed the sacred crocodiles, or spent a lazy afternoon carving

646

Ancient Times

their names on the colossal statues which overshadowed the
plain of Egyptian Thebes (Fig. 69), where Hadrian himself
listened to the divine voice which issued from one of the statues
every morning when the sun smote upon it. And here we still
find their scribblings at the present day. But the thoughtful
Roman, while he found not a little pleasure in the sights, took

Fig. 260. Roman Bridge and Aqueduct at NImes, France

This structure was buil* by the Romans about the year 20 a.d. to
supply the Roman colony of Nemausus (now called Nimes) in south-
ern France with water from two excellent springs 25 miles distant.
It is nearly 900 feet long and 160 feet high, and carried the water over
the valley of the river Gard, The channel for the water is at the very
top, and one can still walk through it. The miles of aqueduct on either
side of this bridge and leading to it have almost disappeared

note also that this land of ancient wonders was filled as of old

with flocks and herds and vast stretches of luxuriant grainfields,

which made it the granary of Rome and an inexhaustible

source of wealth for the emperor's private purse.

1047. An- The eastern Mediterranean then was regarded by the Romans

tion in the ' ^^ //^^/r ancient world, long possessed of its own ancient civili-

East; later zation, Greek and oriental. There the Roman traveler found

Roman m '

the West Greek everywhere, and spoke it as he traveled. But when he

The Second Century of Peace 647

turned away from the East and entered the western Mediter-
ranean, he found a much more modem world, with vast regions
where civilization was a recent matter, just as it is in America.
Thus throughout North Africa, west of Carthage, throughout
Spain, Gaul, and Britain, the Romans had at first found only-
rough settlements, but no cities and no real architecture. Indeed,
these Western lands, the America of the ancients, when first
conquered by Rome had not much advanced beyond the stage
of the Late Stone Age settlements of several thousand years
earlier (§ 325), except here and there, where they had come
into contact with the Greeks or Carthaginians.

Seneca, one of the wisest of the Romans, said, " Wherever 1048. The
a Roman has conquered, there he also lives." This was espe- on^eVesr
cially true of the West. Roman merchants and Roman officials ^"^^ f^^*"^

J surviving

were everywhere, and many of the cities were Roman colonies, buildings
The language of civilized intercourse in all the West was Latin,
the language of Rome, whereas east of Sicily the traveler heard
only Greek. In this age western Europe had for the first time
been building cities ; but it was under the guidance of Roman
architects, and their buildings looked like those at Rome. In
North Africa between the desert and the sea, west of Carthage,
the ruins of whole cities with magnificent public buildings still
survive (Fig. 258) to show us how Roman civilization reclaimed
regions little better than barbarous before the Roman conquest.
.Similar imposing remains survive in western Europe, especially
southern France. We can still visit and study massive bridges,
spacious theaters, imposing public monuments, sumptuous villas,
and luxurious public baths — a line of ruins stretching from
Britain through southern France and Germany to the northern
Balkans (Figs. 259-261).

Just as the communities of Roman subjects once girdled the 1049- The
Mediterranean, so the surviving monuments and buildings terranean
which they used, still envelop the great sea from Britain east- ^^^ ^' ^^^*
ward to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem westward to Morocco, civilized
They reveal to us the fact that as a result of all the ages of

648

Ancient Times

Fig. 261. Restoration of Roman Triumphal Arch at
Orange, France

Having once adopted this form of monument (Fig. 248), the Romans
built many such handsome arches to commemorate important victories.
There were a number at Rome, naturally (see Fig. 246, B and /); of
those built in the chief cities of the Empire, several still remain. The
one pictured above was built at the Roman colony of Arausio (now
called Orange), on the river Rhone, to celebrate a victory over the
Gauls in 21 a. D. Modern cities have erected similar arches; for ex-
ample, Paris, Berlin, London, and New York

human development which we have studied, the whole Mediter^
ranean world, West as well as East, had now gained a high
civilization. Such was the picture which the Roman traveler
gained of that great world which his countrymen ruled : in the
center the vast midland sea, and around it a fringe of civilized

The Second Century of Peace 649

countries surrounded and protected by the encircling line of
legions. They too stretched from Britain to Jerusalem, and
from Jerusalem to Morocco, like a dike restraining the stormy
sea of barbarians outside, which would otherwise have poured
in and overwhelmed the results of centuries of civilized devel-
opment. Meantime we must return from the provinces to the
great controlling center of this Mediterranean world, to Rome
itself, and endeavor to learn what had been the course of civili-
zation there since the Augustan Age — that is, for the last three
quarters of the two centuries of peace.

Section 92. The Civilization of the Early
Roman Empire : Rome

The visitor in Rorhe at the close of the reign of Hadrian io$o. Public
found it the most magnificent monumental city in the world of R^ome^^the
that day. It had by that time quite surpassed Alexandria in Colosseum
size and in the number and splendor of its public buildings.
At the eastern end of the Forum, on ground once occupied by
Nero's Golden House (§ 1014), Vespasian erected a vast amphi
theater for gladiatorial combats, now known as the Colosseum
(Fig. 262). It was completed and dedicated by his son Titus,
who arranged for the forty-five thousand spectators which it
held, a series of bloody spectacles lasting a hundred days.
Although now much damaged, it still stands as one of the
greatest buildings in the world. At the same time Vespasian
completed the rebuilding of the city, after the great fire of
Nero's reign (§1014).

It was especially in and alongside the old Forum that the 1051. The
grandest buildings of the Empire thus far had grown up. The of the°em^^
business of the great world capital led Vespasian and Nerva to P^'^°'^*
erect two more magnificent forums (Fig. 247, Z', 0. These two,
with the two of Caesar and Augustus (Fig. 247, iVJ 6>), formed a
group of four new forums along the north side of the old Forum.
At the northwest end of this group of four Trajan built another,

650

Ancient Times

that is, a fifth new forum (Fig. 247, K)^ which surpassed in
magnificence anything which the Mediterranean world had ever
seen before. On one side was a vast new business basilica,
and beyond this rose a mighty column (Fig. 263) richly carved
with scenes picturing Trajan's brilliant campaigns (Fig. 251).
On each side of the column was a library building, one for

,1 1 J JxuiULiiilJi y_

lHlffl!I

iHiiiiin

"--^^■•^<

Fig. 262. The Vast Flavian Amphitheater at Rome now

CALLED the CoLOSSEUM. (RESTORED AFTER LuCKENBACH)

This enormous building, one of the greatest in the world, was an oval
arena surrounded by the rising tiers of seats, accommodating nearly
fifty thousand people. We see here only the outside wall, as restored.
It was built by the emperors Vespasian and Titus, and was completed
in 80 A.D. (§ 1050). At the left is the colossal bronze statue of Nero,
about 100 feet high, which originally stood in this vicinity, near the en-
trance of his famous " Golden House," just east of the Forum (§ 1014)

X052. Roman
concrete :
Pantheon
and Hadri-
an's tomb

Greek and one for Latin literature. The column still stands
beside one of the busy streets of modem Rome, but little of
the other magnificent buildings has survived.

In the buildings of Trajan and Hadrian the architecture of
Rome reached its highest level both of splendor and beauty, and
also of workmanship. Sometime in the Hellenistic Age archi-
tects had begun to employ increasing quantities of cement

The Second Century of Peace

651

concrete, though it is still uncertain where or by whom the harden-
ing properties of cement were discovered. Under Hadrian and
his successors the
Roman builders com-
pletely mastered the
art of making colos-
sal casts of concrete.
The domed roof of
Hadrian's Pantheon
(Fig. 2 64) is a single
enormous concrete
cast, over a hundred
and forty feet across.
The Romans, there-
fore, eighteen hun-
dred years ago were
employing concrete
on a scale which we
have only recently
learned to imitate,
and after all this
lapse of time the
roof of the Pantheon
seems to be as safe
and stanch as it
was when Hadri-
an's architects first
knocked away the
posts which sup-
ported the wooden
form for the great
cast. The mauso-
leum erected by Ha-
drian is the greatest
of all Roman tombs

Fig. 263. The Column of Trajan

This remarkable monument was erected be-
yond Trajan's Forum in the court between his
two libraries (Fig. 247, T). It is of Parian
marble and stands 100 feet high. Around it
winds a spiral band of one hundred and fifty-
four relief scenes, passing twenty-two times
around the shaft. This band contains twenty-
five hundred human figures, and if it could be
unrolled it would be over 650 feet long. An
examination of one of these reliefs (Fig. 251)
shows us that they are very interesting works
of art, wrought with much skill. They record
Trajan's great campaigns (§ 1022). The broken
columns belonged to the magnificent Basilica
Ulpia (Fig. 247, S), next to Trajan's Forum
(Fig. 247, R)

652

Ancient Times

and for several generations was the burial place of the em-
perors. It survives as one of the great buildings of Rome.;
1053. Roman The r.?//^ sculpture adorning all these monuments (Fig. 251)
scupture j^ ^^ greatest of Roman art. The reliefs covering Trajan's

Fig. 264. Interior View of the Dome of the Pantheon
BUILT at Rome by Agrippa and Hadrian

The first building on this spot was erected by Agrippa, Augustus's great
minister. But it was completely rebuilt, as we see it here, by Hadrian.
The circular hole in the ceiling is 30 feet across; it is 142 feet above
the pavement, and the diameter of the huge dome is also 142 feet.
This is the only ancient building in Rome which is still standing with
walls and roof in a perfectly preserved state. It is thus a remarkable
example of Roman skill in the use of concrete (§'1052). At the same
time it is one of the most beautiful and impressive domed interiors
ever designed. Compare the church of St. Sophia, p. 688

column are a wonderful picture book of his campaigns, display-
ing greater power of invention than Roman art ever showed
elsewhere. Of statue sculpture, however, the vast majority of
the works now produced were copies of the masterpieces of the
great Greek sculptors. Many such famous Greek works, which

The Second Century of Peace

653

perished long ago, are now known to us only in the form of
surviving copies made by the Roman sculptors of this age
and discovered in modern excavations in Italy (Fig. 218).
The portrait sculptors followed the tendencies which they had
inherited from the Hellenistic Age. Their portraits of the
leading Romans are among
the finest works of the kind
ever wrought (Fig. 265).

In painting, the wall deco-
rators were almost the only
surviving practicers of the
art. They merely copied the
works of the great Greek
masters of the Hellenistic
Age over and over again on
the walls of Roman houses
(Fig. 197). Portrait painting,
however, flourished, and the
hack portrait painter at the
street comer, who did your
portrait quickly for you on a
tablet of wood, was almost
as common as our own por-
trait photographer. A young
soldier in the Roman army,
proud of his new uniform,
would for a few cents have
his portrait painted to send
home in a letter to his parents
in Egypt (Fig. 253, descriptive matter), and perfectly preserved
examples of such work have been excavated in the Nile
valley (Plate VIII, p. 654).

There was now a larger educated public at Rome than ever
before, and the splendid libraries maintained by the State were
open to all. Authors and literary men were also liberally

Ftg. 265. Portrait of an
Unknown Roman

This terra-cotta head is one of the
finest portraits ever made. It rep-
resents one of the masterful
Roman lords of the world, and
shows clearly in the features those
qualities of power and leadership
which so long maintained the su-
premacy of the Roman Empire

1054. Roman
painting

654

Ancient Times

1055. Leader-
ship in litera-
ture passes
from Rome
back to
Athens

1056. Latin
prose writers :
Seneca, Taci-
tus, and the
younger

supported by the emperors. Nevertheless, even under these
favorable circumstances not a single genius of great creative
imagination arose. Just as in sculpture and painting, so now in
literature, the leaders were content to imitate or copy the great
works of the past. Real progress in literature therefore ceased.
The leadership in such matters, held for a brief time by Rome
in the Augustan Age, had now returned to Athens, where the
emperors had endowed the four schools of philosophy (§ 762)
as a government university. Nevertheless, Rome was still a
great influence in literature; the leading literary men of the
Empire desired to play a part there, and when a philosopher or
teacher of rhetoric published his lectures in book form, he was
proud to place under the title the words, " delivered at Rome."
While poetry had declined, prose writers were still productive.
Nero's able minister Seneca (§ 1012) wrote very attractive
essays and letters on personal character and conduct. They
show so fine an appreciation of the noblest human traits that
many have thought he had secretly adopted Christianity. His
style became so influential that it displaced that of Cicero for a
long time. The new freedom of speech which arose under the
liberal emperors after the death of Domitian permitted Tacitus
to write a frank history of the Empire from the death of Augus-
tus to the death of Domitian (from 14 a. d. down to 96 a.d.).
Although he allowed his personal prejudices to sway him, so that
he has given us a very dark picture of the Julian emperors, his
tremendous power as a writer resulted in the greatest history
ever put together by a Roman. Among his other writings was

* Quite a number of such portraits have been preserved in Egypt
attached to mummies of the second century a.d. The portrait was
painted on a thin board, laid over the face of the mummy, and bound
down with the wrappings. The method of painting is interesting. No
oil colors were known in the ancient world. The painter mixed his
colors in melted wax, which he then applied while hot to the board.
While this method was old Egyptian, the artist's skill in painting light
was Greek (§ 650; cf. Fig. 197). It was common in Italy, and even
poor people had their portraits painted in this way. The portrait of
Apion, the young Roman soldier (§ 1054), must have looked like this.

Plate VIII. One of the Oldest Survivlxg
Portrait Paintings*

The Second Century of Peace 655

a brief account of Germany, which furnishes us our first full
glimpse into the life of the peoples of northern Europe. The
letters which at this time passed between the younger Pliny
and the emperor Trajan (§ 1032) are among the most interesting
literature of the ancient world. They remind us of the letters
of Hammurapi of Babylon some twenty-two hundred years
earlier (§§ 178-182).

With these writers in Latin we should also associate several 1057. Greek
immortal works by Greeks of the same age, though they did p^Starch^ Ar-
not live at Rome. In the little village of Chaeronea in Boeotia, paJJ^^^^g
where Philip of Macedon crushed the Greeks (§ 685), Plutarch
at this time wrote his remarkable series of lives of the greatest
men of Greece and Rome, placing them in pairs, a Greek and
a Roman together, and comparing them. Although they contain
much that belongs in the world of romance, they form an im-
perishable gallery of heroes which has held the interest and the
admiration of the world for eighteen centuries. At the same
time another Greek, named Arrian, who was serving as a Roman
governor in Asia Minor, collected the surviving accounts of the
life of Alexander the Great. He called his book the Anabasis
of Alexander, after the Anabasis of Xenophon (§ 631), whom
he was imitating in accordance with the imitative spirit of the
age. Arrian was only a passable writer of prose and certainly
not a great historian, but without his compilation we would
know very little about Alexander the Great. A huge guidebook
through Greece, telling the reader all about the buildings and
monuments still standing at that time in the leading Greek
towns, like Athens, Delphi, and Olympia, was now put together
by Pausanias. It furnishes us an immortal picture book in words
of ancient Greece in all its splendor of statues and temples,
theaters and public buildings.

In science the Romans continued to be collectors of the 1058. Lack

knowledge gained by the Greeks. During a long and success- Tttahiments

ful official career the elder Pliny devoted himself with incredible ™.^^"lfx;

^ Pliny's "Natu-

industry to scientific studies. He made a vast collection of the ral History "

656 Ancient Times

facts then known in science, to be found in books, chiefly
Greek. He put them all together in a huge work which he
called "Natural History'* — really an encyclopedia. He was
so deeply interested in science that he lost his life in the great
eruption of Vesuvius, as he was trying both to study the tremen-
dous event at short range, and (as admiral of the fleet) to save
the fleeing people of Pompeii (§ 1034). But Pliny's "Natural
History" did not contain any new facts of importance discovered
by the author himself, and it was marred by many errors in
matters which Pliny misunderstood. Nevertheless, for hun-
dreds of years, until the revival of science in modern times
Pliny's work was, next to Aristotle, the standard authority
referred to by all educated Europeans. Thus men fell into an
indolent attitude of mind and were satisfied merely to learn
what earlier discoverers had found out. This attitude never
would have led to the discovery of the size of the earth as
determined by Eratosthenes (§ 745), or in modem times to
X-ray photographs or wireless telegraphy.
1059. End A great astronomer and geographer of Alexandria, who

Uvrscience flourished under Hadrian and the Antonines, was the last of
at Alexan- ^^ famous scientists of the ancient world. He wrote among

dna; Ptolemy °

Other works a handbook on astronomy, for the most part a
compilation from the works of earlier astronomers. In it he
unfortunately adopted the conclusion that the sun revolved
around the earth as a center. His book became a standard
work, and hence this mistaken view of the solar system, called
the Ptolemaic system, was everywhere accepted by the later
world. It was not until four hundred years ago that the real
truth, already long before discovered by the Greek astronomer
Aristarchus of Samos (§ 744), was rediscovered by the Polish
astronomer Copernicus. It was a further sign of the decline of
science that Ptolemy even wrote a book on Babylonian astrology
(§ 192). Knowledge of the spherical form of the earth as shown
by Ptolemy and earlier Greek astronomers reached the travelers
-and navigators of later Europe, and finally led Columbus to

The Second Century of Peace

657

undertake the voyage to India and the East westward — the
voyage which resulted in the discovery of America.

The position of educated Greeks at Rome was very different 1060, Cos-
from what it had been under the Republic, when such men Se^of^Rome
were slaves or teachers in private households. Now they were
holding important positions in the government or as teachers
and professors paid by the government The city was no
longer Roman or Italian; it had become Mediterranean, and

Map of the World by the Astronomer and Geographer
Ptolemy (Second Century a.d.)

many worthy families from the provinces, settling in Rome,
had greatly bettered the decadent society of the city. Leading
men whose homes in youth had looked out from the hills of
Spain upon the Atlantic mingled at Rome with influential citi-
zens who had been bom within a stone's throw of the Euphrates.
Men of all the worlcf elbowed each other and talked business
in the banks and countinghouses of the magnificent new forums;
they filled the public offices and adrhinistrative departments of
the government, and discussed the hand-copied daily paper

658 Ancient Times

published by the State ; they sat in the libraries and lecture halls
of the university and they crowded the lounging places of the pub-
lic baths and the vast amphitheater. They largely made up the
brilliant social life which ebbed and flowed through the streets,
as the wealthy and the wise gathered at sumptuous dinners and
convivial winter evenings in the city itself, or indolently killed
time loafing about the statue-filled gardens and magnificent
country villas overlooking the Bay of Naples, where the
wealthy Romans spent their summer leisure. We call such
all-inclusive, widely representative life " cosmopolitan " — a
word of Greek origin meaning " world-cityish."
1061. incom- This converging of all the world at Rome was evident in
luxuries"^" the luxuries now enjoyed by the rich. The outward life, houses,
and costumes of the wealthy were on the whole not much
changed from that which we found toward the close of the
Republic (§§ 889-898). Luxury and display had somewhat
increased, and in this direction oriental rarities now played
a noticeable part -(§ 1038). Roman ladies were decked with
diamonds, pearls, and rubies from India, and they robed them*
selves in shining silks from China. The tables of the rich were
bright with peaches and apricots, now appearing for the first
time in the Roman world. Roman cooks learned to prepare
rice, formerly a delicacy required only by the sick. Horace
had amusingly pictured the distress of a miserly Roman when
he learned the price of a dish of rice prescribed by his phy-
sician. Instead of sweetening their dishes with honey as for-
merly, Roman households began to find a new product in the
market place known as " sakari " ; for so the report of a ven-
turesome oriental sailor of the first century a.d. calls the sirup
of sugar cane, which he brought by water from India into the
Mediterranean for the first time. This is the earliest mention
of sugar in history. These new things from the Orient were
beginning to appear in Roman life just as the potatoes, tobacco,
and Indian com of America found their way into Europe after
the voyages of Columbus had disclosed a new Western world.

The Second Century of Peace 659

Section 93. Popularity of Oriental Religions
■ AND the Spread of Early Christianity

The life of the Orient was at the same time continuing to 1062. De-
bring into the Mediterranean other things less easily traced feSuai^iife^^
than rice or sugar, but much more important in their influence ^"^ Roman
on the Roman world. The intellectual life of the Empire was
steadily declining, as we have seen indicated by literature and
science. Philosophy was no longer occupied with new thoughts
and the discovery of new truths. Such philosophy had given
way to the semireligious systems of living and ideas of right
conduct taught by the Stoics and Epicureans (§ 761). Thought-
ful Romans read Greek philosophy of this kind in the charm-
ing treatises of Cicero (§ 1000) or the discussions of Seneca
(§ 1056). Such readers had given up the old Roman gods and
accepted these philosophical precepts of daily conduct as their
religion. But such teaching was only for the highly educated
and the intellectual class.

Nevertheless, such men sometimes followed the multitude 1063. Egyp-
and yielded to the fascination of the mysterious religions coming [Jf Europe*"
in from the East. Even in Augustus's time the Roman poet
Tibullus, absent on a military campaign which sickness had
interrupted, wrote to his fiancee Delia in Rome : " What does
your Isis for me now, Delia? What avail me those brazen
sistra ^ of hers, so often shaken by your hand ? . . . Now,
now, goddess, help me; for it is proved by many a picture
in thy temples that man may be healed by thee." Tibullus
and his fiancee belonged to the most cultivated class, but they
had taken refuge in the faith of the Egyptian Isis. When
Hadrian's handsome young Greek friend Antinoiis was drowned
in the Nile, the emperor erected an obelisk at Rome in his
memory, with a hieroglyphic inscription announcing the beauti-
ful youth's divinity and his union with Osiris. Attached to

1 Egyptian musical instruments played by shaking in the hand.

66o

Ancient Times

Hadrian's magnificent villa near Rome was an Egyptian gar-
den, chiefly sacred to Isis and Osiris and filled with their
monuments. Plutarch wrote an essay on Isis and Osiris which
he dedicated to a priestess of Isis at Delphi. Since the days
of the early Empire, multitudes had taken up this Egyptian
faith, and temples of Isis were to be found in all the larger

Fig. 266. The Temple of Isis at Pompeii

Even the little town of Pompeii had its temple of Isis (§ 1063), as did

also the little Hellenistic city of Priene (Fig. 212). It has here been

restored after Mau

1064. The
Great Mother
goddess of
Asia Minor ;
Persian Mith-
ras; popular-
ity of the
oriental
" mysteries "

cities (Fig. 266). To-day tiny statuettes and other symbols of
the Egyptian goddess are found even along the Seine, the
Rhine, and the Danube.

The Great Mother goddess of Asia Minor (§ 357), with her
consort Attis, gained the devotion of many Romans, also. In
the army the Persian Mithras, a god of light (§ 287), was a
great favorite, and many a legion had its underground chapel
where its members celebrated his triumph. All these faiths had
their " mysteries," consisting chiefly of dramatic presentations

The Second Century of Peace 66 1

of the career of the god, especially his submission to death,
his triumph over it, and ascent to everlasting life (§ 117).
It was believed that to witness these things and to undergo
certain holy ceremonies of initiation would bring to those in-
itiated deliverance from evil, the power to share in the endless
life of the god and to dwell with him forever.

The old Roman faith had little to do with conduct and held 1065. De-
out to the worshiper no such hopes of future blessedness. r^JJ^^ re-
Throughout the great Roman world men were longing for Jjg^"^"^*^^
some assurance regarding the life beyond the grave, and in
the midst of the trials and burdens of this life they wistfully
sought the support and strength of a divine protector. Little
wonder that the multitudes were irresistibly attracted by the
comforting assurances of these oriental faiths and the blessed
future insured by their " mysteries." At the same time it was
believed possible to learn the future of every individual by the
use of Babylonian astrology (§ 192). Even "the astronomer
Ptolemy wrote a book on it (§ 1059). The Orientals who prac-
ticed it were called Chaldeans (§ 238), or Magi, whence our
words '' magic " and " magician," and everyone consulted them.

The Jews too, now that their temple in Jerusalem had been 1066. Juda-
destroyed by the Romans (§ 1018), were to be found in increas-
ing numbers in all the larger cities. Strabo, the geographer,
said of them, " This people has already made its way into every
city, and it would be hard to find a place in the habitable world
which has not admitted this race and been dominated by it."
The Roman world was becoming accustomed to their syna-
gogues ; but the Jews refused to acknowledge any god besides
their own, and their exclusiveness brought them disfavor and
trouble with the government (cf. Fig. 267).

Among all these faiths of the East, the common people were 1067. Rise of
more and more inclining toward one, whose teachers told how "^ *^"^ ^
their Master, Jesus, a Hebrew, was born in Palestine, the land
of the Jews, in the days of Augustus. Everywhere they told
the people of his vision of human brotherhood and of divine

662

Ancient Times

1068. Paul
and the foun-
dation of the
earliest
churches ;
the New
Testament

fatherhood, surpassing even that which the Hebrew prophets
had once discerned (§ 304). This faith he had preached for
a few years in the Aramaic language
of his countrymen (§ 207) — till he
incurred their hatred, and in the
reign of Tiberius, they had put him
to death.

A Jewish tentmaker of Tarsus
named Paul, a man of passionate
eloquence and unquenchable love for
his Master, passed far and wide
through the cities of Asia Minor and
Greece, and even to Rome (§ 1036),
proclaiming his Master's teaching.
He left behind him a line of devoted
communities stretching from Pales-
tine to Rome. Certain letters (cf.
Fig. 253) which he wrote in Greek
to his followers were circulating
•^MI^B widely among them and were read
with eagerness. At the same time a
narrative of the Master's life had also
been written in Aramaic (Fig. 13 1 ), the
language in which he had preached.
This perished, but Greek accounts
drawing upon the Aramaic narrative
also appeared, and were now widely
read by the common people. There
were finally forir leading biographies
of Jesus in Greek, which came to
be regarded as authoritative, and
these we call the Four Gospels.
Along with the letters of Paul and some other writings they
were later put together in a Greek book now known in the
English translation as the New Testament.

Fig. 267. Certificate

SHOWING TrfAT A

Roman Citizen had
sacrificed to the
Emperor as a God*

The Second Century of Peace 663

The other oriental faiths, in spite of their attractiveness, 1069. Superi-
could not offer to their followers the consolation and fellowship SS^ty ove"^
of a life so exalted and beautiful, so full of brotherly appeal and o^fentaf "^
human sympathy as that of the new Hebrew Teacher. In the Hgions
hearts of the toiling millions of the Roman Empire his simple
summons, " Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy
laden," proved a mightier power than all the edicts of the
Roman emperors. The slave and the freedman, the artisan
and craftsman, the humble and the despised in the huge bar-
racks which sheltered the poor in Rome, listened to this new
" mystery " from the East, as they thought it to be, and as time
passed, multitudes responded and found joy in the hopes which
it awakened. In the second century of peace it Was rapidly
outstripping the other religions of the Roman Empire.

The officers of government often found these early converts 1070. Rome
not only refusing to sacrifice to the emperor as a god (§ 1016) Jhe early^^
but also openly prophesying the downfall of the Roman Chnstians
State. The early Christians were therefore more than once
called upon to endure cruel persecution (Fig. 267). Their
religion seemed incompatible with good citizenship, since it
forbade them to show the usual respect for the emperor
and the government.

* Excavators in the ruins of Egyptian villages like Fig. 2 1 1 have dis-
covered over a score of such certificates, each written on a strip of
papyrus. This specimen states that a citizen named Aurelius Horion,
living in the village of Theadelphia in Egypt, appeared before a gov-
ernment commission, and not only affirmed that he had always been
faithful in the worship of the gods but that he also in the presence of
the commission and of witnesses offered sacrifice (a slaughtered animal),
presented a drink offering, and likewise consumed a portion of these
offermgs. In the middle we see the heavy black signature of the pre-
siding official, and at the bottom in four lines the date, corresponding
to our 250 A. D. Every Roman citizen at this time, no matter what his
religion might be, was obliged to possess such a certificate and to show
it on demand. It was called a libellus, and the owner of it was called
a libellaticus. A Christian who would resort to such a means of escap-
ing persecution by the government was greatly despised by the faithful,
who refused to comply. Compare our word " libel."

664 Ancient Times

1071. Organ- Nevertheless, their numbers steadily grew, and each new Chris-
churches and tian group or community organized itself into an assembly of
'^ o^^ukr°^ members called an " ecclesia," or as we say, a church. " Ecclesia "
leadership was the old Greek word for Assembly of the People, and in
these new assemblies, or churches, men of ability were now be-
ginning to find those opportunities for leadership and power
which the decline of citizenship in the old city republics no
longer offered. The leaders of the churches were soon to be
the strong men of the people, and to play 2, political as well as
a religious role.

Section 94. The End of the Second Century
OF Peace

1072. Begin- In spite of outward prosperity, especially suggested by the
dinl°An- magnificent buildings of the Empire, Mediterranean civilization
r^^s""! ^'"^ ^^^ declining in the second century of peace. The decline be-
A.D.) and came noticeable in the reign of Hadrian. The just and kindly

1^3. reus

Aurelius Antoninus, who followed Hadrian in 138 a.d., was called by

(i6i-i8oa;d) ^^ Romans "the Pius," but he hardly showed energy enough
to maintain the foreign prestige of the Empire, even though
he strengthened the northern frontier walls. His successor, the
noble Marcus Aurelius, therefore had to face a very serious
situation (161 a.d.). The Parthians, encouraged by the easy-
going reign of Antoninus Pius, made trouble on the eastern
frontier, and Marcus Aurelius was obliged to fight them in a
four years' war before the frontier was safe again.

1073. Marcus When the Roman troops returned from this war, they

^op?the brought back with them a terrible plague which destroyed

barbarian in- multitudes of men at the very moment when the Empire most

vasion (167- •' *

180 A.D.) needed them. For at this juncture the barbarian hordes in the

German North broke through the frontier defenses (Fig. 252),

and for the first time in two centuries they poured down into

Italy (167 A.D.). The two centuries of peace were ended. At

the same time the finances of the Empire were so low that

The Second Century of Peace 665

the emperor was obliged to sell the crown jewels to raise the
money necessary for equipping and supporting the army.
With little intermission, until his death in 180 a.d., Marcus
Aurelius maintained the struggle against the Germans in the
region later forming Bohemia. Indeed, death overtook him
while still engaged in the war. But in spite of victory over the
barbarians, Marcus Aurelius was unable to sweep them entirely
out of the northern regions of the Empire. He finally took the
very dangerous step of allowing some of them to remain as
farmer colonists on lands assigned to them inside of the fron-
tier. This policy later resulted in very serious consequences to
the Empire.

Nevertheless, the ability and enlightened statesmanship of 1074. Char-
Marcus Aurelius are undoubted. Indeed, they were only Marcus
equaled by the purity and beauty of his personal life. He "^^ ^"^
regarded his exalted office as a sacred trust to which he must
be true, in spite of the fact that he would have greatly pre-
ferred to devote himself to reading, study, and philosophy,
which he deeply loved. Amid the growing anxieties of his
position, even as he sat in his tent and guided the operations
of the legions among the forests of Bohemia in the heart of the
barbarous North, he found time to record his thoughts and
leave to the world a little volume of meditations written in
Greek. As the aspirations of a gentle and chivalrous heart
toward pure and noble living, these meditations are among the
most precious legacies of the past. Marcus Aurelius was the
last of a noble succession, the finest spirit among all the Roman
emperors, and there was never another like him on the imperial
throne. But no ruler, however pure and unselfish his pur-
poses, could stop the processes of decline going on in the
midst of the great Roman world. Following the two centuries
of peace, therefore, was to come a fearful century of revolu-
tion, civil war, and anarchy, from which a very different
Roman world was to emerge.

666 Ancient Times

QUESTIONS

Section 90. Did the struggle at the death of Nero long en-
danger the peace of the Empire ? Who triumphed ? What were the
two great tasks awaiting the emperors? Describe the dangers on
the frontiers. What did Domitian do for the frontiers? Recount
the achievements of Trajan on the lower Danube; in the Orient.
How did Hadrian treat the conquests of Trajan ? What can you say
of the Roman army under Trajan and Hadrian? How was the
management of the government improved? How did this affect tax
collecting? What can you say of agricultural conditions in Italy?
How were the laws improved? Tell about the people's interest in
public affairs in the provinces.

Section 91. Give an imaginary bird's-eye view of the Roman
Empire from Gibraltar. Describe Pompeii. Describe Roman roads
and their traffic. Tell something of sea travel; of commerce; of
hotels ; of society in the provinces. What did a Roman traveler find
in Athens and Delphi ? in Asia Minor and Syria ? in Egypt ? Where
did the Roman's ancient world lie ? Where was his modern world ?
What can you say of Roman buildings surviving in the West?

Section 92. How had Rome now improved? Describe the
Colosseum; the forums of the emperors. What can you say of
Roman use of cement in architecture? of Roman sculpture? of
Roman painting? What had happened to literature in Rome since
Augustus? Tell about the Latin prose writers; the Greek prose
writers. What can you say of science at Rome? at Alexandria?
Tell about the cosmopolitan life of Rome. What can you say of
incoming luxuries of the Orient ?

Section 93. What can you say of intellectual life at Rome? of
religious life ? of incoming oriental religions ? What was the feeling
of the common people toward the oriental religions ? What can you
say of the Jews at this time? Describe the rise of Christianity
and the work of Paul. What can you say of the superiority of
Christianity? What practical difficulty did the Christians meet in
their relations with the Roman government? What certificate did
a citizen have to possess ?

Section 94. What people first caused Marcus Aurelius trouble ?
What event ended the second century of peace ? What did Marcus
Aurelius do to subdue the barbarians? What can you say of the
mind and character of Marcus Aurelius?

CHAPTER XXIX

A CENTURY OF REVOLUTION AND THE DIVISION
OF THE EMPIRE

Section 95. Internal Decline of the
Roman Empire

We have seen good government, fine buildings, education, 1075. Signs
and other evidences of civilization more widespread in the sec-
ond century of peace than ever before. Nevertheless, the great

Note. The above headpiece shows us the surviving ruins of the royal palace
at Ctesiphon on the Tigris (see map, p. 709), once the capital of New Persia.
The tiny human figure in one doorway will indicate to us the vast size of the
building. The huge vault on the right was built over the enormous hall below,
without any supporting timbers during the course of construction. It is 84 feet
across and is the largest masonry vault of its age still standing in Asia. Here the
magnificent kings of New Persia held their splendid court, imitated by the weak
Roman emperors at Constantinople (§ T099). Note the situation of Babylon
as a river station on the great highway between Asia Minor and the East (map,
p. 436). Ctesiphon, situated almost within sight of Babylon, was but one in a
succession of powerful capitals, occupying this great river crossing: Akkad
(§ 166), Babylon (§ 175), Ctesiphon (§ 1094), and, finally, Bagdad (§ 1153). A
British expedition, after fighting several battles under the shadow of these
ruins of Ctesiphon, captured Bagdad in 191 7.

667

cay : former
decline of
farming
continues

668

Ancient Times

1076. Spread
of the orien-
tal domain
system of
landowner-
ship; villas

1077. Rise

of coloni

Empire which we have been studying, although in a condition
seemingly so favorable, was suffering from an inner decay, whose
symptoms at first hidden were fast becoming more and more
evident. In the first place, the decline of farming, so noticeable
before the fiall of the Republic (§§918 f.), had gone steadily on.

In spite of the heavy taxes imposed upon it, land had con-
tinued to pass over into the hands of the rich and powerful.
The oriental system of confining landownership to large
domains held by the State and a few individuals had also
a strong influence. From Asia Minor, where it was wide-
spread under the Persians, this system had passed to Greece
(§ 626). The Romans had found it also in Africa, the prov-
ince behind Carthage. Already in Nero's time half of this
province was made up of six domains, held by only six great
landlords. Such a great estate was called a villa ^ and the sys-
tem of villa estates, having destroyed the small farmers of Italy
(§§ 918-920), was likewise now destroying them in the prov-
inces also. Villas now covered not only Italy but also Gaul,
Britain, Spain, and other leading provinces.

Unable to compete with the great villas, and finding the
burden of taxes unbearable, most of the small farmers gave up
the struggle. Such a man would often enter upon an arrange-
ment which made him the colonus of some wealthy villa owner.
By this arrangement the farmer and his descendants were for-
ever bound by law to the land which they worked, and they
passed with it from owner to owner when it changed hands.
While not actually slaves, they were not free to leave or go
where they pleased; and without any prospect of bettering
themselves, or any opportunity for their children ever to pos-
sess their own lands, these men lost all energy and independ-
ence and were very different from the hardy farmers of early
Rome. As we shall see, many Northern barbarians also became
coloni within the frontiers of the Empire.

The great villas once worked by slaves were now cultivated
chiefly by these coloni. With the end of the long wars the

A Century of Revolution 669

captives who had been sold as slaves were no longer obtain- 1078. De-
able, and slaves had steadily diminished in numbers. Their con- slavery and
dition had also much improved, and the law now protected ^^hg^con^"^
them from the worst forms of cruelty once inflicted upon dition of
them (§ 915). We have already noticed the growing practice
of freeing slaves, which made freedmen so common through-
out the Empire that they were playing an important part in
manufactures and business (§ 1040).

Multitudes of the country people, unwilling to become colonic 1079. De-
forsook their fields and turned to the city for relief. Many eSentof
did this because neglect of fertilization and long-continued culti- j^jjl^^g^^^^
vation had exhausted their land and it would no longer produce diminishing
crops. Great stretches of unworked and weed-grown fields
were no uncommon sight. As a result the amount of land
under cultivation continually decreased, and the ancient world
was no longer raising enough food to feed itself properly. The
scarcity was felt most severely in the great centers of popu-
lation like Rome, where prices had rapidly gone up. Our own
generation, afflicted in the same way, is not the first to com-
plain of the " high cost of living." • •

Offers by the emperor to give land to anyone who would 1080. Dis-
undertake to cultivate it failed to increase the amount of land of ?he?ann-
under the plow. Even under the wisest emperors the srovem- ^^ ^"? .

, 10 Rome's ma-

ment was therefore entirely unable to restore to the country bility to re-
districts the hardy yeomen, the brave and independent farmers,
who had once formed the basis of Italian prosperity — the
men who, in the ranks of the legion, had laid the foundation
of Roman power. The destruction of the small farmers and
the inability of Rome to restore them formed the leading cause
among a whole group of causes which brought about the
decline and fall of this great Empire.

The country people who moved to Rome were only bring- 1081. De-
ing about their own extermination as a class. The large families fluenferof
which country life favors were no longer reared, the number ^^^^ ^'^^
of marriages decreased, and the population of the Empire shrank.

6/0

Ancient Times

1082. De-
cline of citi-
zenship in
the cities

1083. De-
cline of
business

Debased by the life of the city, the former sturdy yeoman
lost his independence in an eager scramble for a place in the
waiting line of city poor, to whom the government distributed
free grain, wine, and meat. The time which should have
been spent in breadwinning was worse than wasted among
the cheering multitudes at the chariot races, bloody games,
and barbarous spectacles. Notwithstanding the fine families
who moved to Rome from the provinces under the liberal
emperors of the second century a.d., the city became a great
hive of shiftless population supported by the State, with
money which the struggling agriculturist was taxed to pro-
vide. The same situation was in the main to be found in
all the leading cities.

In spite of outward splendor, therefore, these cities too were
declining. They had now learned to depend upon Rome to care
for them even in their own local affairs, and their citizens had
rapidly lost all sense of public responsibility. The helpful rivalry
between neighboring city-states too had long ago ceased. Every-
where the leading men of the cities were indifferently turning
away from public life. Moreover, Rome was beginning to lay
financial obligations upon the leading men of such cities, and
it was becoming increasingly difficult to find men willing to
assume these burdens. Responsible citizenship, which does so
much to develop the best among the citizens in any community
and which had earlier so sadly declined in Greece (§ 767), was
passing away, never to reappear in the ancient world.

At the same time the financial and business life of the cities
was also declining. The country communities no longer pos-
sessed a numerous purchasing population. Hence the country
market for the goods manufactured in the cities was so seriously
reduced that city industries could no longer dispose of their
products. They rapidly declined. The industrial classes were
thrown out of work and went to increase the multitudes of the
city poor. City business was also much hurt by a serious lack
of precious metals for coining money.

A Century of Revolution 67 1

Many of the old silver and gold mines around the Mediter- 1084. Lack
ranean now seem to have been worked out. Wear in circula- meSiTfor^
tion, loss by shipwreck, private hoards, and considerable sums debSement
which went to pay for goods in India and China, or as gifts to of coins
the German barbarians, — all these causes aided in diminishing
the supply of the precious metals. The government was there-
fore unable to secure enough to coin the money necessary for
the transaction of business. The emperors were obliged to be-
gin mixing in an increasing amount of less valuable metals and
coining this cheaper alloy. The Roman coin collections in the
European museums show us that the coins of Augustus were
pure, while those of Marcus Aurelius contain twenty-five per
cent of alloy. Two generations after Marcus Aurelius there
was only five per cent of silver in a government coin. A dena-
rius, the common small coin worth nearly twenty cents under
Augustus, a century after the death of Marcus Aurelius was
worth only half a cent.

Even Marcus Aurelius had trouble in finding enough money 1085. De-
to pay his army. As soon as this difficulty became serious it army; the
paralyzed the government and demoralized the army. It was Sons become
impossible to maintain a paid army without money. As it be- militia
came quite impossible to collect taxes in money, the govern-
ment was obliged to accept grain and produce as payment ,
of taxes, and great granaries and storehouses began to take the
place of the treasury as in ancient Egypt (§ 75). Here and
there the army was paid in grain. On the frontiers, for lack of
other pay the troops were assigned lands, which of course did
them no good unless they could cultivate them. Then they
were allowed to marry and to live with their families in little
huts on their lands near the frontier. Called out only occa-
sionally for drill or to repel a barbarian raid, they soon lost all
discipline, became merely feeble militia, called by the Roman
government "frontiersmen" (Jimitanei).

Even under Marcus Aurelius, a governor of a province
had started a serious rebellion. Hence the emperor was now

672

Ancient Times

1086. Stand-
ing army in
Italy, and its
decline

I0»7. De-
moralization
of army and
State caused
by lack of
a law of
succession

1088. Rise
of the prov-
inces to a
level with
Italy and
resulting
competition

obliged to keep a standing army in Italy. These legions had
become much smaller, and they were made up increasingly of
barbarians, especially Germans and the uncivilized natives of
the northern Balkan, among whom the Illyrians took the lead.
The Roman citizen was now a rarity in the ranks, and it soon
became necessary to allow the barbarians to fight in their own
massed formations, to which they were accustomed (§ 11 20).
The discipline of the legion, and the legion itself, disappeared,
and with it the superior military power of Rome was gone.
The native ferocity and reckless bravery of uncivilized hordes,
before which the unmilitary Roman townsmen trembled, were
now the power upon which the Empire relied for its protection.

This degeneration of the army was much hastened by a serious
imperfection in the organization of the Roman State, left there
by Augustus. This was the lack of a legal and long-practiced
method of choosing a new emperor and transferring the power
from one emperor to the next and thus maintaining from reign
to reign without a break the supreme authority in the Roman
State. The troops found that they could make a new emperor
whenever the old emperor's death gave them an opportunity.
For an emperor so made they had very little respect, and if he
attempted to enforce discipline among them, they put him out
of the way and appointed another. Rude and barbarous merce-
nary soldiery thus became the highest authority in the State.

Finally, the spread of civilization to the provinces had made
them feel that they were the equals of Rome and Italy itself.
Even under the Republic there was much foreign blood in the
peninsula. Horace himself had been the son of a freedman,
of nobody-knows-what race. Italy was now largely foreign in
population. Trajan and Hadrian had been Spaniards, and more
than one province furnished the Empire with its ruler. When,
in 212 A.D., citizenship was granted to all free men within the
Empire, in whatever province they lived, the leveling of dis-
tinctions gave the provinces more and more opportunity to
compete for leadership.

A Centufy of Revolution 673

Section 96. A Century of Revolution

These forces of decline were bringing swiftly on a century 1089. Begin-
of revolution which was to shipwreck the civilization of the cenuiryof
early world. This fatal century began with the death of revolution;

J JO decline under

Marcus Aurelius in 180 a.d. The assassination of his un- Septimius
worthy son Commodus, who reminds us of Nero, was the 211 a.d.)
opportunity for a struggle among a group of military usurpers.
From this struggle a rough but successful soldier named
Septimius Severus emerged triumphant. It was he who found
himself obliged to settle the frontier troops on their own lands,
with resulting demoralization of the army (§ 1085). He system-
atically filled the highest posts in the government with military
leaders of low origin. Thus, both in the army (§ 1086) and in
the government, the ignorant and often foreign masses were
gaining control. Nevertheless, the energy of Severus was such
that he led his forces with success against the Parthians in the
East, and even recovered Mesopotamia. But the arch which
he erected to commemorate his victories, and which still stands
in the Forum at Rome (Fig. 246, i), reveals in its barbarous
sculptures the fearful decline of culture in Italy. The Roman
artists who wrought these rude reliefs were the grandsons of
the men who had so skillfully sculptured the column of Trajan
(Fig. 251).

The family of Septimius Severus maintained itself for a time, 1090. End
and it was his son Caracalla who conferred citizenship on all of Severus
freemen in the Empire in 212 a.d. (§ 1088). But when the line (^35 a.d.)
of Severus ended (235 a.d.), the storm broke. The barbaric suing civil
troops in one province after another set up their puppet provinSal"^
emperors to fight among themselves for the throne of the ^^P^'^o'"^
Mediterranean world. The proclamation of a new emperor
would be followed again and again by news of his assassina-
tion. From the leaders of the barbaric soldier class, after the
death of Commodus, the Roman Empire received eighty rulers
in ninety years. One of these rulers of a day, in 248 a.d., went

674

Ancient Times

1091. Fifty
years of an-
archy and
the collapse
of higher
civilization

1092. Bar-
barian raids

1093. Tem-
porary inde-
pendence of
Gaul and
evidences of
rebuilding
of its cities

through the mockery of celebrating the thousand years' jubilee
of the traditional founding of Rome.

Most of these so-called emperors were not unlike the revolu-
tionary bandits who proclaim themselves presidents of Mexico.
For fifty years there was no public order, as the plundering
troops tossed the scepter of Rome from one soldier emperor
to another. Life and property were nowhere safe ; turbulence,
robbery, and murder were everywhere. The tumult and fight-
ing between rival emperors hastened the ruin of all business,
and as the affairs of the nation passed from bad to worse,
national bankruptcy ensued. In this tempest of anarchy during
the third century a.d. the civilization of the ancient world
suffered final collapse. The supremacy of mind and of scien-
tific knowledge won by the Greeks in the third century B.C.
(§ 743) yielded to the reign of ignorance and superstition in
these social disasters of the third century a.d.

As the Roman army weakened, the Northern barbarians were
quick to perceive the helplessness of the Empire (§1086). In
the East the Goths, one of the strongest German tribes, took
to the water, and their fleet passed out of the Black Sea into
the Mediterranean. While they devastated the coast cities far
and wide, other bands pushed down through the Balkan Penin-
sula and laid waste Greece as far as the Peloponnese. Even
Athens was plundered. The barbarians penetrated far into
Italy; in the West they overran Gaul and Spain, and some
of them even crossed to Africa. In Gaul they burned city
after city, and their leaders stood by and laughed in exultation
as they saw the flames devouring the beautiful buildings of the
Roman cities (Figs. 258-261).

Under these circumstances, when the people of the plundered
lands saw that the Empire could no longer defend them, they
organized for their own defense. In this way Gaul, for exam-
ple, became an independent nation under its own rulers for
years in this terrible century. Its people repulsed the barbarians
and slowly rebuilt their burned cities. They dared not spread

A Century of Revolution 675

out the city, as before, but grouping all the buildings close to-
gether, the town was built compactly and surrounded by a
massive wall, made largely of blackened blocks of stone taken
from the ruined buildings burned by the barbarians. In no less
than sixty cities of France to-day sections of these heavy walls,
when taken down to make room for modem improvements,
are found to contain these smoke-blackened blocks. Far out-
side the city walls containing these blocks, excavation has re-
vealed to us the foundations of the splendid Roman structures
from which the blocks came and which formed the once larger
city destroyed by the barbarians.

At the same time a new danger had arisen in the East. A 1094. Rise of
revival of patriotism among the old Persian population had (226 a. d.)
resulted in a vigorous restoration of their national life. Their s^gg^j^
leaders, a family called Sassanians (or Sassanids), overthrew the kings
Parthians (226 a.d.) and furnished a new line of enlightened
Persian kings. As they took possession of the Fertile Crescent
and established their capital atCtesiphon on the Tigris, not far
north of Babylon, a new Orient arose on the ruins of seemingly
dead and forgotten ages. Fine buildings of Persian architec-
ture (headpiece, p. 667), though influenced by Greek art, again
looked down upon the Tigris and Euphrates, beautiful works
of the Persian artist and craftsman again began to appear, and
the revered religion of Zoroaster took on new life. We have
in this movement a last revival of that old Iranian race which
produced the religion of Zoroaster and built up the vast Persian
Empire. The Sassanian kings organized a much more powerful
State than that of the Parthians which they overthrew, and they
regarded themselves as the rivals of the Romans for the Empire
of the world. The old rivalry between the Orient and the
West, as in the days of Greece and Persia, was now con-
tinued, with Rome as the champion of the West, and this New
Persia as the leader of the East (see map II, p. (i^^^i).

Just as the family of Severus was declining, this empire of
New Persia rose into power as a dangerous foe of the Roman

6j6 Ancient Times

1095. Pal- Empire on the eastern frontier. From this time on the Empire
state again^t^ was seriously threatened on two fronts, on north and east. As
Zenobir^'^ ' ^^ Gaul, SO in the East, the rise of a usurper within the Roman

Empire for a time saved the region from absorption by the
outside enemy. One of the eastern governors, using Palmyra
as a center, gained his independence and defended the eastern
frontier on his own account. After his death his widow, the
beautiful Zenobia, ruled at Palmyra as queen of the East, over
a realm which included Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. Her
kingdom served for a time as a buffer state, protecting the
Roman Empire from attack by New Persia.

1096. Aure- With a powerful oriental state under Zenobia holding the east-

275 a?d!)~ em Mediterranean lands, and an able senator named Tetricus,

th^^Ef'^l: master of Gaul, Britain, and northern Spain, ruling the West

and Gaul; as an independent emperor (§ logs), it looked as if the Roman
Diocletian _ . ^ , r „ . .^,

restores order Empire were about to fall to pieces. The anarchy which we
(2 4A.D.) \^2M^ already noticed within the Empire was at its worst, when
one of the soldier emperors, named Aurelian (270 to 275 a.d.),
advanced against Zenobia, defeated her army, captured Pal-
myra and took the queen prisoner. Similar success in Gaul
enabled him to celebrate a gorgeous triumph in Rome, with
Zenobia and Tetricus led through the streets of the city along
with the other captives who adorned his triumph. Aurelian
restored some measure of order and safety. But, in order to
protect Rome from the future raids of the barbarians, he built
entirely around the great city the massive wall (Fig. 249, and
plan, p. 622) which still stands, — a confession of the dangerous
situation of Rome in the third century a.d. It was a little over
a century after the death of Marcus Aurelius, when the emperor
Diocletian restored what looked like a lasting peace (284 a.d.).
If at this point we look back some four hundred years over
the history of Rome since she became mistress of the world,
we discern three great periods.-^ With the foundation of the

1 Periods of history do not end or begin abruptly. There is always a gradual
transition from one to the next, and the dates in this paragraph merely suggest
the points at which the transition was very evident.

- ROMAN EMPIRE U)

ORGANIZ^HD BY DIOCLETIAN and CONSTANTINE /

Boundary Line of the Empire

Line of Division between the Eaatern and Western Empires

Prefecture of the Orient

...^

J Prefecture of lUyricum
J Prefecture of Italy
] Pxefecture of Gaul

Scale of Statute Miles
100 200 300 400 500

A Century of Revolution 6'/J

Empire by Augustus there began two centuries of peace, and 1097. Sum-

this period of peace was both preceded and followed by a cen- Sinturies o?

tury of revolution. We have thus had. a century of revolution, ^g°kHsm"'

two centuries of peace, and then a second century of revolu- culminating

. 1 ^ i" Diocletian

tion. The first century of revolution led from the Gracchus (284 a.d.)
brothers to the triumph of one-man power and the foundation
of the Empire by Augustus (that is, about 133 to 30 B.C.).
The two centuries of peace beginning with the foundation of
the Empire by Augustus continued into the reign of Marcus
Aurelius (that is, about 30 B.C. to nearly 170 a.d.). The sec-
ond century of revolution led from the enlightened' reign of
Marcus Aurelius to oriental despotism' under Diocletian (that
is, about 180 to about 284 a.d.). Thus four centuries of
Roman imperialism, after bringing forth such masterful men
as Sulla and Julius Caesar, had passed through various stages
of one-man power, to end in despotism. We are now first to
examine that despotism and then to see how it was over-
whelmed by two centuries of barbarian invasions from the
North, while at the same time it was also crushed by the
reviving power of the Orient, whose assaults were to last
many centuries more (study map, p. 676).

Section 97. The Roman Empire an Oriental
Despotism

The world which issued from the disasters of this second 1098. Diode-
revolution toward the end of the third century a.d. under ^^x^^^y^

Diocletian was a totally different one from that which Augustus 2?^ Ron^an

■' ° Empire an

and the Roman Senate had ruled three centuries before, oriental

Diocletian deprived the shadowy Senate of all power, except
for the municipal government of the city of Rome. The Roman
Senate, now reduced to a mere City Council, a Board of Alder-
men, disappeared from the stage of history. The emperor thus
became for the whole Roman world 'what he had always been
in Egypt, — an absolute monarch with none to limit his power.

despotism

6/8

Ancient Times

1099. New
Persian in-
fluence ; tri-
umph of
oriental
influences

iioo. Em-
peror an
oriental Sun-
god ; triumph
of despotism,
end of de-
mocracy

The State had been completely militarized and orientalized.
With the unlimited power of the oriental despot the emperor
now assumed also its outward symbols — the diadem, the gor-
geous robe embroidered with pearls and precious stones, the
throne and footstool, before which all who came into his
presence must bow down to the dust.

Recent discovery has shown that the gorgeous costume in
which the Roman emperor now decked himself was copied
from that of the Sassanian kings of New Persia. The Roman
leaders had seen much of this new empire of the East for two
generations, and from its brilliant oriental court these outward
matters of royal costume, court symbols, and customs were
adopted. Oriental influence on Roman beliefs, such as we
have seen in the spread of the worship of the Persian god
Mithras (§ 1064), was now also affecting the notion of the
divinity of the emperor (§ 1016). In these things we recog-
nize a further stage in that commingling of the East and
West, begun by Alexander the Great over six hundred years be-
fore (§ 703). Indeed, the Roman Empire had now become like
a vast sponge absorbing the life and civilization of the Orient.

As a divinity, the emperor had now become an oriental Sun-
god and he was officially called the " Invincible Sun." His
birthday was on the twenty-fifth of December; that is, about
the date when the sun each year begins to turn northward
after he has reached his southernmost limit. The inhabitants
of each province might revere their particular gods, undis-
turbed by the government, but all were obliged as good citi-
zens to join in the official sacrifices to the head of the State as
a god. With the incoming of this oriental attitude toward the
emperor, the long struggle for democracy, which we have fol-
lowed through so many centuries of the history of early man,
ended in the triumph of oriental despotism.

The necessity of leading the army against New Persia, the
new oriental enemy, carried the emperor much to the East.
The result was that Diocletian resided most of the time at

A Ce7itury of Revolution 679

Nicomedia in Asia Minor (see map, p. 676). As a natural con- noi. Diode-
sequence the emperor was unable to give close attention to the iJ? "Jhe^East
West. Following some earlier examples, and perhaps remem- and appoints
bering the two consuls of the old Republic, Diocletian there- of the West
fore appointed another emperor to rule jointly with himself, to
give his attention to the West. The second emperor was to
live at Milan in the Po valley, really the most important region
of Italy. All government edicts, whether issued in the East or
the West, were signed by both emperors, and it was not
Diocletian's intention to divide the Roman Empire, any more
than it had been the purpose to divide the Republic in electing
two consuls. The final result was nevertheless the division of
the Roman Empire into East and West, just as it had once
been divided by the war between Caesar in the West and
Pompey in the East, or the similar conflict between Octavian
in the West and Antony in the East.

In order to avoid the recurrence of civil war at the death 1102. Diocle-
of an emperor, Diocletian endeavored to arrange the transfer ments for the
of power from one emperor to the next. He and his fellow succession
emperor each bore the title of Augustus. The two Augustuses
appointed two subordinates, to be called Caesars. There were
thus two emperors, or Augustuses, and two subordinate emper-
ors, or Caesars, intended to be something like vice presidents.
For it was provided that at the death or resignation of either
Augustus one of the Caesars should at once take his place
as Augustus, and another Caesar was then to be appointed.
These arrangements display little statesmanship, and there was
no possibility of their permanence.

In accordance with this organization, involving four rulers, 1103. Diocle-
the provinces of the Empire, over a hundred in number, were istrative"™*""
divided into four great groups, or prefectures (see map, p. 676), o''&ani2ation
with a prefect over each. Still smaller groups of provinces,
twelve in number, were called dioceses, mostly ruled by vicars,
the subordinates of the prefects ; while under the vicars were
the governors of the separate provinces. The business of each

68o Ancient Times

province was organized in the hands of a great number of local
officials graded into many successive ranks and classes from
high to low. There was an unbroken chain of connection from
the lowest of these up through various ranks to the governor,
the vicar, and the prefect, and finally to the emperor himself.
1104. Op- The financial burden of this vast organization, begun under

pressive a- j^jQ^^jg^j^in and Completed under his successors, was enormous.
For this multitude of government officials and the clamorous
army had all to be paid and supported. It was a great expense
also to maintain the luxurious oriental court of the emperor,
surrounded by his innumerable palace officials and servants.
But now there werey^wr such imperial courts, instead of one.
At the same time it was still necessary to supply '^ bread and
circuses" for the populace of the towns (§1081). In regard to
taxation, the situation had grown steadily worse since the reign
of Marcus Aurelius. The amount of a citizen's taxes therefore
continued to increase, and finally little that he possessed was
free from taxation.
iio<. Bad When the scarcity of coin forced the government to accept

tax collection grain and produce from the delinquent taxpayer, taxes had
become a mere share in the yield of the lands. The Roman
Empire thus sank to a primitive system of taxation already
thousands of years old in the Orient. It was now customary
to oblige a group of wealthy men in each city to become respon-
sible for the payment of the entire taxes of the district each
year, and if there was a deficit, these men were forced to make
up the lacking balance out of their own wealth. The penalty of
wealth seemed to be ruin, and there was no motive for success
in business when such prosperity meant ruinous overtaxation.
1106. Loss Many a worthy man secretly fled from his lands to become

ers and mid^ ^ wandering beggar, or even to take up a life of robbery and
die-class violence. The Roman Empire had already lost, and had never

men ; obiiga- been able to restore, its prosperous farming class. It now lost
ofoccupa- likewise the enterprising and successful business men of the
tions middle class. Diocletian therefore endeavored to force these

A Century of Revolution 68 1

classes to continue their occupations. He enacted laws for-
bidding any man to forsake his lands or occupation. The
societies, guilds, and unions in which the men of various occu-
pations had long been organized (§ 1040) were now gradually
made obligatory, so that no one could follow any calling or
occupation without belonging to such a society. Once a
member he must always remain in the occupation it implied.

Thus under this oriental despotism the liberty, for which 1107. Disap-
men had striven so long, disappeared in Europe, and the once Hber^ and

free Roman citizen had no independent life of his own. For freecit^^en-

^ ship

the will of the emperor had now become law, and as such his
decrees were dispatched throughout the length and breadth of
the Roman dominions. Even the citizen's wages and the prices
of the goods he bought or sold were as far as possible fixed for
him by the State. The emperor's innumerable officials kept an
eye upon even the humblest citizen. They watched the grain
dealers, butchers, and bakers, and saw to it that they properly
supplied the public and never deserted their occupation. In
some cases the State even forced the son to follow the profes-
sion of his father. In a word, the Roman government now
attempted to regulate almost every interest in life, and where-
ever the citizen turned he felt the control and oppression of
the State.

Staggering under his crushing burden of taxes, in a State nos. The
which was practically bankrupt, the citizen of every class had toS'^forthe
now become a mere cog in the vast machinery of the govern- ^*^^^
ment. He had no other function than to toil for the State,
which exacted so much of the fruit of his labor that he was
fortunate if it proved barely possible for him to survive on what
was left. As a mere toiler for the State, he was finally where
the peasant on the Nile had been for thousands of years. The
emperor had become a Pharaoh, and the Roman Empire a
colossal Egypt of ancient days.

The century of revolution which ended in the despotic reor-
ganization by Diocletian completely destroyed the creative ability

682 Ancient Times

1109. End of of ancient men in art and literature, as it likewise crushed all

oAfghir^^ progress in business and affairs. In so far as the ancient world

civilization in ^^g one of prosfress in civilization, its history was ended with
the ancient 10 ' j

world; future the accession of Diocletian. Nevertheless, the Roman Empire
Rome had still a great mission before it, in the preservation of at least

something of the heritage of civilization, which it was to hand
down the centuries to us of to-day. Moreover, it was out of the
fragments of the Roman Empire that the nations of modern
Europe grew up. We are now to watch it then as it falls to
pieces, still mechanically maintaining its hold upon its mighty
heritage from the past, and furnishing the materials, as it were,
out of which our world of to-day has been built up.

Section 98. The Division of the Empire and the
Triumph of Christianity

iiio. Shift of Under Diocletian Italy had been reduced to the position of a
power"from taxed province, and had thus lost the last vestige of superiority
B^ik ^° p^^ ^^^^ ^^^ other provinces of the Empire. The dangerous flood
insula of German barbarians along the lower Danube and the threat-

ening rise of New Persia had drawn the emperor into the
northeast corner of the Empire. During the century of revo-
lution just past, the Illyrian soldiers of the Balkan Peninsula
had filled the army with the best troops and furnished more
than one emperor. An emperor who had risen from the ranks
of provincial troops in the Balkans felt little attachment to
Rome. Rome had not only ceased to be the residence of an
emperor, but the center of power had clearly shifted from Italy
to the Balkan Peninsula. The movement was the outcome of
a reviving respect for the East and a long growing interest
in the Balkan Peninsula, observable even as early as Hadrian,
who spent vast sums in the beautification of Athens. After
the struggles following Diocletian's death, — struggles which his
arrangements for the succession (§ 1 102) failed to prevent, — the
emperor Constantine the Great emerged victorious (324 a.d.).

A Century of Revolution

683

He did not hesitate to turn to the eastern edge of the Balkan
Peninsula and establish there a New Rome as his residence.

The spot which he selected showed him to be a far-seeing im. Con-
statesman. He chose the ancient Greek town of Byzantium, l^";* a^d.^^'^

makes Con-
stantinople
his residence
and seat of
government
(330 A.D.)

Fig. 268. View across the Bosporus from Europe to Asia

This view places us on the European shore of the Bosporus, and we
look eastward to the Asiatic shore, with the mountains behind, rising to
the table-land of central Asia Minor (§ 351). Just south of us (at the
right) on the same shore is Constantinople ; a little to the north (the
left) is the place where Darius the Great probably built his bridge
when he first invaded Europe to conquer the Scythians (§ 500). The
towers and walls before us are part of a fortress built by the Turkish
conquerors when they crossed from Asia for the conquest of Constan-
tinople in 1453 A.D. (§ 1 158). For ages this intercontinental crossing has
been the commercial and military link between Europe and Asia, and
as the author writes (May, 19 16) the greatest nations of the world are
fighting for its possession

on the European side of the Bosporus (Fig. 268), — a magnifi-
cent situation overlooking both Europe and Asia, and fitted to
be a center of power in both. In placing his new capital here,
Constantine established a city, the importance of which was
only equaled by the foundation of Alexandria in Egypt. The

684

Ancient Times

emperor stripped many an ancient city of its great monuments
in order to secure materials for the beautification of his splendid
residence (Fig. 269). By 330 a.d.. the new capital on the

Fig. 269. Ancient Monuments in Constantinople

The obelisk in the foreground (nearly 100 feet high) was first set up in
Thebes, Egypt, by the conqueror Thutmose III (§111); it was erected
here by the Roman emperor Theodosius (§ 1125). The small spiral
column at the right is the base of a bronze tripod set up by the Greeks
at Delphi (Fig. 172) in commemoration of their victory over the Persians
at Plataea (§ 517). The names of thirty-one Greek cities which took
part in the battle are still to be read, engraved on this base. These
monuments of ancient oriental and Greek supremacy stand in what was
the Roman horse-race course when the earlier Greek city of Byzantium
became the Eastern capital of Rome (§ mi). Finally, the great mosque
behind the obelisk, with its slender minarets, represents the triumph of
Islam under the Turks, who took the city in 1453 a.d.

Bosporus was a magnificent monumental city, worthy to be
the successor of Rome as the seat of the Mediterranean
Empire. It was named Constantinople (" Constantine's city ")
after its founder.

A Century of Revolution 68 5

The transfer of the capital of the Roman Empire to the east 1112. Con-
side of the Balkan Peninsula was a decided triumph for the and the sepa-
older civilization of the eastern Mediterranean. But it meant anTwesf-^^^

the separation of east and west — the cutting of the Roman continuance

. . of decline

Empire in two. Although the separation did not take place

abruptly, yet within a generation after Constantinople was
founded, the Roman Empire had in fact if not in name become*
two states, and they were never more than temporarily united
again. Thus the founding of Constantinople sealed the doom
of Rome and the western Mediterranean lands of the Empire.
For a time the eastern half of the Empire, ruled by Constanti-
nople, was greatly strengthened by Diocletian's reorganization.
Nevertheless, it too was doomed to steady decline. We have
seen that citizenship in the Roman Empire no longer meant a
share in the control of public affairs. Able men of affairs were
no longer arising among such citizens, except as the army raised
one of its commanders to the position of emperor. Peaceful
civil life was no longer producing statesmen to control govern-
ment affairs as in the days of the Roman and Greek republics.

In this situation, as the Christian churches steadily increased 1113. The
in numbers, and their influence grew, they more and more new arena^or
needed the guidance of able men. The management of the ^^ "^^ °^
great Christian communities and their churches called for in-
creasing ability and experience. Public discussion and disputes
in the Church assemblies enabled gifted men to stand forth, and
their ability brought them position and influence. The Chris-
tian Church thus became a new arena for the development of
statesmanship, and Church statesmen were soon to be the lead-
ing influential men of the age, when civil democracy had long
since ceased to produce such men.

These officers of the Church gradually devoted themselves 1114. The
more and more to Church duties until they had no time for any- powerfuf
thing else. They thus came to be distinguished from the other organization :
members and were called the clergy^ while the people who made bishops, and
up the membership were called the laymen^ or the laity. The ^^^ '* °^^

686 Ancient Times

old men who cared for the smaller country congregations were
finally called merely presbyters^ a Greek word meaning " old
men," and our word " priest " is derived from this Greek term.
Over the group of churches in each city, a leading priest gained
authority as bishop. In the larger cities these bishops had such
influence that they became archbishops, or head bishops, hav-
* ing authority over the bishops in the surrounding cities of the
province. These church arrangements were modeled to a large
extent on those of the Roman government, from which such
terms as " diocese "(§ 1103) were borrowed. Thus Christianity,
once the faith of the weak and the despised, became a power-
ful organization, strong enough to cope with the government.

1115. Chris- The Roman government therefore began to see the useless-
on"a^gar^ ness of persecuting the Christians. The struggle to suppress
basis with them was one which decidedly weakened the Roman State, at
gions a time when the long disorders of the century of revolution

made the emperors feel their weakness. In the time of Diocle-
tian, his " Caesar " Galerius, feeling the dangers threatening
Rome from without and the uselessness of the struggle against
' ' the Christians within^ issued a decree, in 311 a.d., by which

Christianity was legally recognized. Its followers received the
same legal position granted to the worshipers of the old gods.
This decree was also maintained by Constantine, and under his
direction the first great assembly, or council, of all the churches
of the Roman world was held at Nicaea, in northeastern Asia
Minor.

1116. Julian The victory of Christianity was not yet final however. After
tote^' (361^ Constantine's sons and nephews had spent years in fighting
363 A.D.) f Qj. |.jjg crown, which one of the sons held for a time, the sur-
vivor among the group was Constantine's nephew Julian, the

-:i; ablest emperor since the second century of peace. Like Marcus

; Aurelius, he was a philosopher on the throne ; for he was

:u.,. devoted to the old literature and philosophy of the Greeks.

• He therefore renounced Christianity and did all that he could

to retard its progress and to restore Hellenistic religion and

A Century of Revolution 68/

civilization. He was an able general also. He defeated the
German barbarians in the West, but while leading his army in
the East against the New Persians he died. The Church called
him Julian " the Apostate " ; he was the last of the Roman
emperors to oppose Christianity.

QUESTIONS

Section 95. In spite of seeming prosperity, what was now the
real condition of the Roman Empire 1 What can you say of the de-
cline of farming? Describe the system of coloni. What was now
the condition of slavery.? What can you say of the extent of culti-
vated lands and the food supply ? What was happening to the farm-
ing class.? Discuss city life; the decline of business. Discuss the
supply of precious metals and money. How did this difficulty affect
the army? What was the effect of the lack of a law of succession
on the army? What was now Italy's situation in the Empire?

Section 96. Tell what happened after the death of Marcus
Aurelius. Describe the conditions following the time of the family
of Septimius Severus. What did the Northern barbarians do ? What
happened in Gaul? Describe the rise of New Persia. Tell about
Palmyra and Zenobia. How were Gaul and Palmyra subdued ? How
did Aurelian protect Rome? Who ended the century of revolution,
and when? How can we summarize the four centuries of Roman
imperialism which ended with the advent of Diocletian (284 b. C.) ?

Section 97. How did Diocletian treat the Roman Senate ? What
did the Roman emperor become? What influences triumphed?
What became of democracy ? What can you say about the emperor's
place of residence? What arrangements for the succession did
Diocletian make ? Tell about his administrative organization. What
can you say of taxation under Diocletian ? How did this affect men of
means ? What two classes of men had the Empire now lost ? What
can you say of liberty and free citizenship? What was the result?

Section 98. Where had the center of power shifted ? Who tri-
umphed in the struggles following Diocletian's death? Where did
he establish the new eastern Rome ? W hat was the effect upon old
Rome? upon the Empire? What can you say of the opportunities
offered by the Church to able men? Tell about its organization.
How did Christianity gain legal recognition? W^ifn? Tell about
Julian the Apostate.

CHAPTER XXX

THE TRIUMPH OF THE BARBARIANS AND THE END OP
THE ANCIENT WORLD

Section 99. The Barbarian Invasions and the
Fall of the Western Empire^

1117. The

barbarian

danger

We have often met the Indo-European barbarians who occu-
pied northern Europe, behind the civilized belt on the north of
the Mediterranean. Since the days of the Stone Age men this

1 This account of the absorption of the western part of the ancient world by
the barbarians is here necessarily very brief. A fuller presentation of this period
will be found in Robinson's Medieval and Modem Times (chaps, ii-v), a book
■which continues this Ancient Times.

Note. The above headpiece shows us the interior of the famous church of
St. Sophia, built at Constantinople by Justinian from 532 to 537 a.d. (§ 1149). The
first church on this spot was of the usual basilica form (Fig. 271, j), but Justinian's
architects preferred an oriental dome. They therefore roofed the great church
with a gigantic dome 183 feet high at the center, sweeping clear across the audi-
ence room and producing the most imposing vaulted interior now surviving from

688

The Tritimph of the Barbarians 689

northern region had never advanced to a high civilization. Its
barbarian peoples had been a frequent danger to the fringe of
civilized nations along the Mediterranean. We recall how the
Gauls overwhelmed northern Italy, even capturing Rome, and
how they then overflowed into the Balkan Peninsula and Asia
Minor (§§ 722,813,815). We remember the terror at Rome when
the Germans first came down, and how they were only defeated
by a supreme effort under the skillful soldier Marius (§ 936).

By superior organization the Romans had been able to feed ms. Former
and to keep together at a given point for a long time a larger riority^and^
number of troops than the barbarians. This was the secret of ^^^.^^ ^^^^^'

^ ority to bar-

Csesar's success against them (§ 955). During the century of barian armies
revolution after the reign of Marcus Aurelius, Roman army
organization had gone to pieces and the barbarians raided the
lands of the Empire without hindrance. After such raids the bar-
barians commonly withdrew. By the time of Diocletian, however,
the barbarians were beginning to form permanent settlements
within the limits of the Empire, and there followed two centu-
ries of barbarian migration, in the course of which they took
possession of the entire western Mediterranean world.

The Germans were a fair-haired, blue-eyed race of men of 1119. The
towering stature and terrible strength. In their native forests peoples
of the North each German people or nation occupied a very ^thome
limited area, probably not over forty miles across, and in num-
bers such a people had not usually more than twenty-five or
thirty thousand souls. They lived in villages, each of about a
hundred families, and there was a head man over each village.
Their homes were but slight huts, easily moved. They had
little interest in farming the fringe of fields around the village,
much preferring their herds, and they shifted their homes often.

the ancient world. Justinian is said to have expended 18 tons of gold and the
labor of ten thousand men in the erection of the building. Since the capture of
Constantinople by the Turks (1453 a.d.), the vast church has served as a Moham-
medan mosque. The Turks have whitewashed the gorgeous mosaics with which
the magnificent interior is adorned, and large circular shields bearing the mono-
gram of the Sultan have been hung against the walls.

690

Ancient Times

1120. The

German
peoples in
migration
and war

1121. Admis-
sion of whole
German
peoples to
settle in the
Empire and
serve in the
army

They possessed no writing and very little in the way of indus-
tries, manufactures, or commerce. A group of noble families
furnished the leaders (dukes) or sometimes kings, governing
the whole people.

Hardened to wind and weather in their raw Northern climate,
their native fearlessness and love of war and plunder often led
them to wander, followed by their wives and families in heavy
wagons. An entire people might comprise some fifty villages,
but each village group remained together, protected by its body
of about a hundred warriors, the heads of the village families.
When combined, these hundreds made up an army of five to
six thousand men. Each hundred held together in battle, as a
fighting unit. They all knew each other ; the village head man,
the leader of the group, had always lived with them ; the warrior
in the tumult of battle saw all about him his friends and rela-
tives, the sons of his brothers, the husbands of his daughters.
In spite of lack of discipline, these fighting groups of a hundred
men, united by such ties of blood and daily association, formed
battle units as terrible as any ever seen in the ancient world.
Their eager joy in battle and the untamed fierceness of their
onset made them irresistible.

The highly organized and carefully disciplined Roman legions,
which had gained for Rome the leadership of the world, were
now no more. Legions made up of the peace-softened towns-
men of Diocletian's time, even if they had existed, would have
given way before the German fighting groups, as chaff is driven
before the wind. Hopeless of being able to drive the Germans
back, the emperors had allowed them to settle within the fron-
tiers (§ 1073). Even Augustus had permitted this. Indeed, the
lack of men for the army had long since led the emperors to
hire the Germans as soldiers, and Julius Caesar's cavalry had
been largely barbarian. A more serious step was the admission
of entire German peoples to live in the Empire in their accus-
tomed manner. The men were then received into the Roman
army, but they remained under their own German leaders

The Triumph of the Barbafians 69 1

and they fought in their old village units. For it was only
as the Roman army was made up of the German fighting
units that it had any effectiveness. Barbarian life, customs,
and manners were thus introduced into the Empire, and the
Roman army as a whole was barbarian. At the same time
the German leaders of such troops were recognized as
Roman officers.

Along the lower Rhine there lived under a king a powerful 1122. The
group of German peoples, called the Franks. The Vandals, ^^n peo^'
also in the North, had long borne an evil reputation for their ^^^p Julian's
destructive raids. South of them, the Alemanni had frequently Franks and
moved over the frontiers, and on the lower Danube the Goths strassburg
were a constant danger. Constantine's nephew Julian (§ 11 16) (357 a.d.)
had gained a fierce battle against the Germans at Strassburg
(357 A.D.), and had thus stopped the Franks and Alemanni at
the Rhine. He established his headquarters at Paris, where
he still continued to read his beloved books in the midst of the
campaign. The philosopher emperor's stay at Paris fifteen and
a half centuries ago, for the first time brought clearly into
history that important city of future Europe.

This constant commingling of the German peoples with the 1123. Ger-
civilized communities of the Empire was gradually softening ga1n?ome^^
their Northern wildness and giving them not only familiarity iJJcluSn^"'
with civilization but also a respect for it. Their leaders, who writing and
held office under the Roman government, came to have friends
among highborn Romans, Such leaders sometimes married
educated Roman women of rank, even close relations of the
emperors. Some of them too were converted to Christianity.
An educated German of the Goths, a man named Ulfilas,
translated the New Testament into Gothic, a dialect akin to
German. As the Germanic peoples possessed no writing, he was
obliged to devise an alphabet from Greek and Latin for writing
Gothic. He thus produced the earliest surviving example of a
written Germanic tongue and aided in converting the Northern
peoples to Christianity.

692

Ancient Times

1124. West
Goths pushed
across the
Danube by
the Huns;
battle of
Adrianople
(378 A.D.)
the begin-
ning of a
century of
continuous
barbaric
migration

1 125. Theo-
dosius (379-
395 A.D.)
restores the
Empire

iia6. Divi-
sion of the
Empire at
death of
Theodosius
(395 A-D.)

At this juncture barbarians of another race, having no Indo-
European blood in their veins, had been penetrating Europe
from Asia. These people were the Huns. They were the most
destructive of all the barbarian invaders. They pushed down
upon the lower Danube, and the West Goths (often called
Visigoths), fleeing before them, begged the Romans for per-
mission to cross the Danube and settle in the Empire. Valens,
who had followed Julian as emperor of the East, gave them
permission to do so. Thereupon friction between them and the
Roman officials caused them to revolt. In the batde which
ensued at Adrianople (378 a.d.), although the Goths could not
have had an army of over fifteen thousand men, the Romans,
or rather the Germans fighting for them, were defeated, and
the emperor Valens himself was killed. Henceforth the helpless-
ness of the Roman Empire was evident to all the world. This
movement of the West Goths and the battle of Adrianople were
the beginning of a century of continuous migration in which the
Western Empire was slowly absorbed by the barbarians and
broken up into German kingdoms under German military leaders.

Theodosius, who succeeded Valens at Constantinople, was
the last of the great emperors to unite and rule the whole
Roman Empire. He came to an understanding with the West
Goths, allowing them to settle where they were, taking them
into his army, and giving their leaders important posts in the
government. But it was only by using the able and energetic
Germans themselves as his ministers and commanders that he
was able to maintain his empire. He even gave his niece in
marriage to his leading military commander, a Vandal named
Stilicho, and at his death, in 395 a.d., Theodosius intrusted to
this able German the care of his two young sons Honorius
and Arcadius.

Theodosius divided the Empire between these two youths,
giving to Arcadius the East and to Honorius the West. The
Empire was never to be united again. Indeed, after the
appearance of these two young emperors, the dismemberment

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OF THE GERMANS

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FIFTH CENTURY

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The Tntimph of the Barbarians 693

of the Western Empire went rapidly forward, and in two
generations resulted in the disappearance of both the Western
emperor and his empire (see map, p. 676).

From both the Danube and the Rhine the movement of the 1127. West
barbarians southward and westward went on. Led by their Greece and
king Alaric, the West Goths first pushed down from the ^!^^)^^'l^ke
Danube into the Balkan Peninsula and advanced plundering Rome (410

A.D.), and

into Greece, where they even took Athens. Here the German establish a
Stilicho, leading German troops, confronted the German inva- in^caul"
sion and forced it back. Driving their wagons piled high with
the plunder of Greece, Alaric led his West Goths into lUyricum,
where Arcadius made him official commander. When the faith-
ful Stilicho had been executed on a charge of treason by Hono-
rius, there was no one to oppose Alaric in his invasion of Italy.
In 410 A.D. the emperor of the West was thus obliged to look
on helplessly while the Gothic host captured and plundered
Rome itself.-^ Indeed, when the West Goths, after the death of
Alaric, retired from Italy into southwestern Gaul, and later into
Spain, Honorius was obliged to recognize the West Gothic
kingdom which they set up there (see map, p. 692).

While these movements of the West Goths were going on 1128. Estab-
after 400 a.d., the Vandals and two other German peoples vandar°
had crossed the Rhine, and, advancing through Gaul, they had kingdoms
penetrated into Spain, where these three peoples set up three and Africa ;
German kingdoms. These kingdoms, like that of the West in^G^u^Ipi
Goths in Gaul, acknowledged that they were vassals of Hono- 45° a.d.)
rius as emperor of the West. Not long after their settlement
in Spain, the Vandals sailed across the Strait of Gibraltar and
seized the Roman province of Africa (429 a.d.). The African
kingdom of the Vandals was likewise recognized by the West-
em emperor. A little later the German Burgundians had
pushed in beside the West Goths and set up a kingdom in
southeastern Gaul.

1 Not long after 400 b. c. Rome was captured by the Gaub (§815), and a few
years after 400 a. d. it was captured by the Goths.

694

Ancient Times

1 129. West-
em Empire
loses Britain
and dwindles
to Ttaly

1 130. Italy
and the West
invaded by
the Huns

(450-453
A.D.) ; Rome
taken by
the Vandals
(455 A.D.)

Meantime German peoples located along the North Sea had
taken to the water and were landing in the Island of Britain.
While Alarie was sacking Rome, the last Roman soldiers were
being withdrawn from the island, and within a generation after-
ward the German tribes of the Angles and Saxons were setting
up kingdoms there, which did not acknowledge the sovereignty
of Rome. A rival emperor in Gaul was obliged to let the
island go, nor could the feeble emperor of the West, in Italy,
ever recover it. He was equally helpless as far as any real
power over the western German kingdoms was concerned.
Within a generation after 400 a.d. the Western Empire had
therefore dwindled to Italy itself, and even there the emperor
of the West was entirely in the hands of his German officials
and commanders.

In this condition of weakness Italy was subjected to two
more serious invasions. The Eastern Empire had not been able
to control the Huns who had forced the West Goths across the
Danube (§ 1124). For two generations since then the kingdom
of the Huns had steadily grown in power, until their king
Attila governed an empire extending from southern Russia to
the Rhine. He laid the Eastern Empire under tribute, and by
450 A.D. he and his terrible barbarian host were sweeping
down upon Italy in the most destructive invasion which the
South ever suffered. The West Goths, with other western
Germans, however, rallied to the assistance of the Western
emperor against the common enemy, and in a terrible battle
at Chalons, in France, Attila was defeated in 451 a.d. He
retreated eastward, and two years later, as he was invading
Italy, he died. The Hunnish empire fell to pieces, never to
trouble Europe again. Hardly had Rome thus escaped when
the Vandals crossed over from Carthage to Sicily and Italy,
and in 455 a.d. they captured Rome. Although they carried
off great quantities of spoil, they spared the magnificent build-
ings of the city, as Alarie and his West Goths had also done
forty-five years earlier (see map, p. 692).

The Triumph of the Barbarians 695

In Italy, all that was left of the Western Empire, the German 1131. Last of
military leaders possessed all the power and made and unmade at Rmne^^^'^^
emperors as they pleased. But these seeming emperors of the Romulus
West were now to disappear. By a remarkable coincidence the displaced by
last to bear the title was called Romulus Augustulus ; that is, leader, Odo
Romulus, " the little Augustus." He thus bore the names both acer(476A.D.)
of the legendary founder of Rome itself and of the founder of
the Roman Empire. He was quietly set aside by the German
soldiery, who put Odoacer, one of their number, in his place.
Thus in 476 a.d., two generations after Theodosius, the last of
the Western emperors disappeared. The line of emperors at
Rome thus ended a little over five hundred years after it had
been established by Augustus. The German leaders in Italy
sent word to the Eastern emperor at Constantinople that they
acknowledged the sovereignty of the Eastern emperor, who
then authorized Odoacer to rule with the title of " patrician."

Meantime another great migration of the barbarians again 1132. Estab-
altered the situation in the West. An eastern branch of the Jjf an East
Goths, whom we call, therefore, the East Goths (Ostro-Goths), ?°*!c ^ing-

' . ' ^ ^' dom in Italy

had remamed along the Danube for two generations after their byTheodoric
kindred, the West Goths, had departed (§ 1 1 24). Then they also ^^^^ ^'^'^
shifted westward and southward into Italy, where, in 493 a.d.,
their king Theodoric the Great displaced Odoacer and made
himself king of a strong East Gothic kingdom in Italy. Although
he was unable even to read, Theodoric was a wise and highly
civilized ruler, and under him Italy began to recover from her
misfortunes. His power finally included, besides Italy and Sicily,
part of Gaul and Spain, and it at one time seemed that the
Western Empire was about to be restored under a German
emperor. This restoration of the West was prevented, however,
by the rise of Justinian, the last great emperor of the East at
Constantinople.

After the death of Theodosius (395 a.d.) the Eastern Empire 1133. Justin-
had been ruled by weaklings. Justinian, however, who was J-econquesf
crowned at Constantinople in 527 a.d., only a generation after °^t^^ ^^^^

696

Ancient Times

the rise of Theodoric, was a gifted and energetic ruler. His
dream was the restoration of the united Empire. Under his able

,^^,^^.-.W|p, 1 general Belisarius,

' =-••>• :^.^-;''-e4 he therefore en-

deavored to recon-
quer the West.
Belisarius overthrew
the Vandal king-
dom in the prov-
ince of Africa and
then passed over
into Italy, where he
finally crushed the
kingdom of the East
Goths. Although
disturbed by a seri-
ous revolt in Italy,
the Eastern emper-
or's authority was
restored in Italy,
Sicily, Africa, and
southern Spain. But
Justinian showed
very poor judgment
in supposing that
the Eastern Empire

Fig. 270. Hall of an Egyptian Temple

ALTERED INTO A CHRISTIAN ChURCH

Over fifteen hundred years ago, in the reign of
Theodosius (379-395 a.d.), not many years be-
fore 400 A.D., the temples of the old gods all
around the Mediterranean were closed by edict
of the emperor. They were then gradually
forsaken, as we find them now, or the huts and

sun-dried-brick hovels of the poor crowded into them. In some cases a
temple hall, once devoted to the worship of the gods, was then con-
verted into a Christian church. In such a hall of the Luxor Temple at
Thebes in Egypt, the arched niche we see here was cut into the wall
for the pulpit of the preacher, and Greek columns were set up to sup-
port a canopy over his head. The pagan relief scenes on the walls were
covered with plaster on which Christian saints were painted. This
Christian plaster, visible just at the left of the left-hand column, has now
largely fallen off and revealed the old pagan pictures, as we see them
here still further to the left, where the pictures of the old Egyptian
gods have emerged again, to find their former worshipers all vanished

The Triumph of the Barbarians 697

possessed the power again to rule the whole Mediterranean
world. His destruction of the East Gothic kingdom in Italy-
left the peninsula helpless before the next wave of barbaric
migration, nor were his successors able to maintain his conquests.

But if political unity failed, the emperor's large plans did 1134. Justii>
succeed in establishing a great judicial or legal unity. He em- compiled^
ployed a veiy able lawyer named Tribonian to gather together
all the numerous laws which had grown up in the career of
Rome since the age of the Twelve Tablets (§ 802) a thousand
years before. Justinian was the Hammurapi of the Roman
Empire, and the vast body of laws which he collected repre-
sented the administrative experience of the most successful
rulers of the ancient world. Almost every situation and every
difficulty arising in social life, in business transactions, or in
legal proceedings had been met and settled by Roman judges.
The collection of their decisions arranged by Justinian in brief •
form was called a digest. Justinian's Digest became the foun-
dation of law for later ages, and still remains so to a large
extent in the government of the civilized peoples of to-day.

Under Justinian Constantinople enjoyed wide recognition and 1135. End
the emperor gave lavishly for its beautification. But it was no tempLs
longer for building the old temples of the gods or basilicas and
amphitheaters that the ruler gave his wealth. The old world of
Greek civilization had received its last support from Julian, two
centuries earlier (§ 11 16). Theodosius, the last emperor to rule
the entire Empire, had forbidden the worship of the old gods
and issued a decree closing all their temples. Since 400 a.d.
the splendid temples of the gods, which fringed the Mediter-
ranean (Fig. 219) and extended far up the Nile (Fig. 64), were
left more and more forsaken by their worshipers, till finally they
were deserted and desolate as they are to-day, or they were
altered for use as Christian churches (Fig. 270). The last blow
to what the Church regarded as Greek paganism was now
struck by Justinian, who closed the schools of philosophy form-
ing the university at Athens. The buildings to which the

698

Ancient Times

1 136. Divi-
sion of the
Church into
East and
West

emperor now devoted his wealth were churches. The vast
church of Saint Sophia which he built at Constantinople still
stands to-day, the most magnificent of the early churches of
the East (headpiece, p. 688).

Just as this building shows its oriental origin in its architec-
ture, so did the teachings of the Church in the Eastern Empire.
The efforts of Justinian to unite East and West failed to a large
extent because of the jealousy of the oriental churches and
the power of the Western Church. A division was therefore
steadily developing between the Eastern (Greek) Church and
the Western (Latin) Church. For while the dismemberment of
the Western Empire, which we have followed, was still going
on, there was arising at Rome an emperor of the Church, who
was in no small degree the heir to the lost power of the West-
em emperor. As there had been an Empire of the East and
an Empire of the West, so there were to be also a Church of
the East and a Church of the West. To the Western Church
we must now turn.

Section 100. The Triumph of the Roman Church
AND ITS Power over the Western Nations

1137. Unique
position of
Rome, and
the bishop
of Rome

The venerable city of Rome, with its long centuries as mis-
tress of the world behind it, had gained a position of unique
respect and veneration, even among the barbarians. The Goths
and the Vandals had stood in awe and reverence under the
shadow of its magnificent public buildings. They had left them
uninjured, and in all its monumental splendor, Rome was still
the greatest city of the world, rivaled only by Constantinople
and Alexandria, the two other imperial cities. It was natural
that the bishop of Rome should occupy a position of unusual
power and respect. When the West Goths were threatening
the city, and also in other important crises caused by the in-
coming of the barbarians, the bishop of Rome had more than
once showed an ability which made him the leading statesman

The Tritimph of the Barbarians 699

of Italy, if not of the West. There is no doubt that his influence
had much to do with the respect which the West Goths and the
Vandals had shown toward the city in sparing its buildings.

At the same time the Church throughout the West had early 1138. Early
produced able men. This was especially true in Africa, the gntial men
province behind Carthage, where the leading early Christian c^n^church-
writers had appeared. The bishop of Carthage was soon a Augustine
serious rival of the bishop of Rome, and their rivalry in Chris- 430 a.d.)
tian times curiously reminds us of the long past struggle between
the two cities. Here in Africa in the days of Theodosius,
Augustine, the greatest of the thinkers of the early Church,
had arisen. Not at first a Christian, the young Augustine had
been devoted to Greek philosophy and learning. At the same
time he gave way to evil habits and uncontrolled self-indulgence.
As he gained a vision of spiritual self-denial, his faithful Chris-
tian mother, Monica, followed him through all the tremendous
struggle and distress of mind, from which he emerged at last
into a triumphant conquest of his lower nature, and the devo-
tion of his whole soul to Christianity. In a volume of " Confes-
sions " he told the story, which soon became the never-failing
guide of the tempted in the Christian Church. Along with the
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, it belongs among the most
precious revelations of the inner life of a great man which we
have inherited.

In the days after Alaric had plundered Rome, and earthly 1139. Augus-
govemment seemed to totter, Augustine also wrote a great o?God'^and
treatise which he called "The City of God," meaning the the power of

•> ' ^ Church and

government of God. Opposed to the governments of this State over
world and superior to them, he pictured an invisible kingdom of men ^
of God, to which all Christian believers belonged. But this in-
visible kingdom was after all hardly distinguished by Augustine
from the visible organized Church with its bishops and priests.
To the authority of this eternal kingdom — that is, to the authority
of the Church — all believers were urged by Augustine to submit
without reservation. In the teaching of Augustine, therefore, the

700 Ancient Times

Church gained complete control over the beliefs of men. This
was at the very same time when the Edict of Theodosius was
closing the temples of the old gods. The State was thus assum-
ing the power to suppress all other beliefs, and henceforth it
maintained its power over both the bodies and' the minds of
its subjects. In accordance with this idea Justinian had closed
the university at Athens in order to stop freedom of thought
and the teaching of the old philosophy (§ 1 135). To the author-
ity of the State over the beliefs of its people, Augustine added
the authority of the Church. Thus ended all intellectual liberty
in the ancient world.

1140. Grow- Augustine, moreover, recognized the leadership of the Church
ChurclTof^ at Rome, and thus added his influence to a tendency already
Rome iQj^g f gij. by all (§ 113 7). For it was widely believed that Christ had

conferred great power in the Church upon the Apostle Peter.
Although it was known that Paul had also worked in Rome,
early tradition told how Peter had founded the Church at Rome
and become bishop there. It was also widely held that Peter
had transferred his authority to his successors as bishops at
Rome. Tradition thus aided in establishing the supremacy of
the bishop of Rome.

1141. Rise of As increasing numbers of men withdrew from worldly occu-
monkTand pations and gathered in communities, called monasteries, to lead
spread of j^^jy jjygg qj. ^q j^elp Carry the Christian faith to the Northern
the Roman barbarians, these beliefs regarding the Church of Rome went
the North with them. Such monks, as they were called, taught the bar-
barians that the Church also had power over the life here-
after. Dreading frightful punishments beyond the grave, the
superstitious peoples of the North submitted readily to such
influences, and the Church gained enormous power over the
barbarians. It was a power wielded more and more exclusively
by the bishop of Rome.

When the power of the Roman Empire was no longer able
to restrain the barbarians, the influence of the Church held them
in check. The Church gradually softened and modified the fierce

Loll gi tilde E

ENG., 8UFFAV0,

)ni Greenwich

The Triumph of the Barbarians 'joi

instincts of barbarian kings ruling over barbarian peoples. The 1142. Value
barrier of Roman organization and of Roman legions which gnce of the
had protected Mediterranean civilization had given way, but ^^"bart)arians
the Church, taking- its place, made possible the transference of
power from the Roman Empire to the barbarians in the West,
without the complete destruction of our heritage of civilization
bequeathed us by Greece and Rome,

Less than a generation after the death of Justinian, a gifted 1143- Greg-
bishop of Rome named Gregory, commonly called Gregory the bishop of '
Great, showed himself a statesman of such wisdom and ability foTA.D?)^^"
that he firmly established the leadership of the Roman Church.
Italy, left defenseless by Justinian's destruction of the East
Gothic kingdom (§ 1133), was thereupon invaded by the Lom-
bards (" Longbeards "), the least civilized of all the German
barbarians, who easily took possession of the Po valley. The
Lombards were divided into small and rather weak communities.
Thus the fallen Western Empire was not followed by a powerful
and enduring nation in Italy, and this gave to the bishops of
Rome the opportunity so well used by Gregory, to make them-
selves the leaders of Italy. It was this great Church ruler who
also sent missionary monks to Britain, and thus established
Christianity in England two centuries after the Roman legions
had left it.

The influence of the Roman Church was likewise extended 1144. Rise of
among the powerful Franks (§ ii22),a group of German tribes a^d the
on the lower Rhine. Their king, Clovis, accepted Christianity \^^^'^^ll
not long before 500 a.d. He succeeded in welding together
the Frankish tribes, and the kingdom he left had been stead-
ily growing for over a century before Gregory's time. After
Gregory's death this Frankish kingdom included a large part
of western Europe, embracing, besides western Germany, the
countries which we now call Holland, Belgium, and France. By
the middle of the sixth century the Frankish kings had fallen
under the influence of a family of their own powerful house-
hold stewards called " Mayors of the Palace," who at last

702 Ancient Times

really held the ruling power, though in the name of the king.
After 700 A.D. the Mayor of the Palace, who actually governed
the great Frankish kingdom, was Charles Martel. He saved Eu-
rope from being overrun by the Moslems (732 a.d.) (see § 1 154),
and his descendants became the greatest kings of the PYanks.

1145. AUi- By combining with the bishop of Rome, whom we may now
Charlemagne Call the Pope, the new Frankish kings gained the dominion of
and the Pope; western Europe. They assisted the Pope by subduing the
magne'scoro- unruly Lombards in Italy and conquered a large part of
Pope'^(8oo modern Germany, besides northern Spain. Charlemagne, the
^'^■^ grandson of Charles Martel, ruled an empire consisting of

western Germany, France, Italy, and northern Spain. He was
the most powerful European sovereign of his time, and in
800 A.D. he was crowned by the Pope at Rome as Roman
emperor, theoretically supposed to succeed the line of emperors
headed by Augustus. The emperor Charlem.agne was an en-
lightened ruler who desired to do all that he could for the
education and well-being of his people. The civilization which
he tried to spread, although it was very limited, was what was
left of old Roman life and organization, which had been pre-
served largely through the influence of the Church.

1146. Church The Church had been founded in the beginning chiefly
culture r^S- among the lowly and the ignorant (§ 1069). It had originally
ervation of been without higher Greek civilization, learning, and art. Grad-
ture by the ually it gained also these things, as men like Augustine arose.

It is chiefly to the libraries of the monks in the monasteries,

and to their practice of copying ancient literary works, that we

owe the preservation of such Latin literature as has survived.

To-day our oldest and most important copies of such things as

Virgil's ^neid (§ 1004) are manuscripts written on parchment,

preserved in the libraries of the Christian monks.

1147. The Art was slow to rise among early Christians, and for a

churdfand thousand years or more there were no Christian painters or

ancestor^^ sculptors to be compared with those of Greece. On the other

hand, the need for places of assembly led to the rise of great

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704

The Triumph of the Barbanans 705

architects among the early Christians. Influenced chiefly by

the old business basilica, they devised noble and impressive

assembly rooms for the early congregations in the days of

Constantine. We still call such a church a basilica, to indicate

its form. In the basilica churches we find the outcome of that

long architectural development of thirty-five hundred, years,

from the earliest known clerestory at the Pyramids of Gizeh

to the Christian cathedral (Fig. 271).

. The church tower also, at- first not a part of the church 1148. The

building, was a descendant of the old Babylonian temple tower and its orien-

(Fig. 272). Thus the faith of Jesus, an oriental teacher, was tal ancestor

sheltered in beautiful buildings which likewise showed their

oriental ancestry. These Christian buildings, the church and

its tower, like the faith they sheltered, are a striking example

of how the world of later Europe reached back into that early

Orient with which we began the story of civilization, when

Europe was still in the Stone Age. And that ancient Orient,

whose civilization thus survived in the life of Europe, was yet

to rise once more, to dominate the Mediterranean as it had

so often done before. To this final revival of the Orient we

must now turn.

Section ioi. The Final Revival of the Orient

AND THE Forerunners of the Nations of Modern

Europe

Justinian, whose reign covered the middle years of the sixth 1149. The
century a.d., was, as we have already said, the last great ruler Eastern Em-
of the Eastern Empire. His endeavors to reunite the Empire ?usdnf n^
and to adorn his capital both proved very disastrous. He spent
the strength of his Empire in trying to regain the West, when
he needed all his resources to defend himself against the New
Persians, who assailed the eastern frontier in war after war.
His great buildings, especially the magnificent church of Saint
Sophia (headpiece, p. 688), required so much money that his

7o6

Ancient Times

1 150. Inva-
sion of the
Slavs; East-
ern Empire
no longer
Roman

1151. Mo-
hammed
(570-632
A.D.) and
the founding
of Islam

treasury was emptied and the government was bankrupt. From
the mistakes of Justinian the Eastern Empire never recovered,
and at his death it entered upon an age of steady decline.

Meantime a new invasion of barbarians was bringing in the
Slavs, a non-German group of Indo-European peoples. They
poured into the Balkan Peninsula to the gates of Constantinople
and even down into Greece. They were soon holding the terri-
tory in these regions which they still occupy. Under these cir-
cumstances the Eastern Empire at Constantinople, although it
was without interruption the direct descendant of the Roman
Empire, was no longer Roman, any more than was the Empire
of Charlemagne in the West. The Eastern Empire became
what it was in population and civilization, a mked i^reek-Slavic-
Oriental State.

Moreover, a vast section of the Eastern emperor's dominions
lay in the Orient. Of these eastern dominions a large part was
now about to be invaded and seized by a great Semitic migra-
tion like those which we have repeatedly seen as the nomads of
the Arabian desert were led by Sargon or the rulers of Ham-
murapi's line into Babylonia ; or as the Hebrews swept in from
the desert and seized the towns of Palestine (§§ 135, 166, 175,
293). The last and the greatest movement of the Semitic bar-
barians was now about to take place. Not long after the death
of Justinian, there was born in Mecca (Fig. 273) in Arabia a
remarkably gifted lad named Mohammed. As he grew up he
believed, like so many Semitic teachers, that a commanding
voice spoke within him as he wandered in the wilderness. This
voice within him brought him messages which he felt compelled
to communicate to his people as teachings from God, whom he
called Allah. After much persecution and great danger to his
life, he gathered a group of faithful followers about him, and
when he died, in 632 a.d., he had established a new religion
among the Arabs, which he had called Islam, meaning "recon-
ciliation"; that is, reconciliation to Allah, the sole God. The
new believers he had called Muslims, or, as we spell it,

The Triumph of the Barbarians

707

Moslems, meaning " the reconciled." By us they are often
called Mohammedans, after their prophet. After Mohammed's
death the Moslem leaders gathered together his teachings, till

Fig. 273. A Bird's-eye View of Mecca and its Mosque

Mecca is one of the few towns in the barren Arabian peninsula ; for by
far the great majority of the Arabs live as roving shepherds (§ 134)
and not in towns. Mecca had been a sacred place long before the time
of Mohammed, and the people had been accustomed to come there as
pilgrims, to do homage to a sacred black stone called the Kaaba.
Mohammed did not interfere with these customs. After his death the
Moslems built a large court modeled on a colonnaded Greek market
place (Fig. 212, M), around the Kaaba. Such a structure was the sim-
plest form of a mosque. Over the Kaaba they erected a square shelter,
which we see in the middle of the mosque court. To this place the
Moslem believers still come in great numbers as pilgrims every year.
Our sketch shows an exaggerated representation of the procession of
pilgrims. In his later years Mohammed lived at Medina, over 200 miles
north of Mecca, and the pilgrims also visit his tomb there

then uncollected, and copied them to form a book called the
Koran (Fig. 274), now the Bible of the Moslems.

The Moslem leaders who inherited Mohammed's power were
called caliphs, a word meaning " substitute." As rulers, they
proved to be men of the greatest ability. They organized the
untamed desert nomads, who now added a burning religious

1152. Rise of
the oriental
Empire of
the Moslems

7o8

Ancient Times

1153. The

nomad Arabs
learn city civi-
lization along
the Fertile
Crescent

zeal to the wild courage of barbarian Arabs. This combination
made the Arab armies of the caliphs irresistible. Within a few-
years after Mohammed's death they took Egypt and Syria from

the feeble successors of
Justinian at Constanti-
nople. They thus reduced
the Eastern Empire to
little more than the Bal-
kan Peninsula and Asia
Minor. At the same
time the Arabs crushed
the empire of the New
Persians and brought the
Sassanian line of kings
to an end (640 a.d.),
after it had lasted a little
over four hundred years.
Thus the Moslems built
up a great oriental em-
pire, with its center at
the east end of the
Fertile Crescent.

Just as the people of
Sargon and Hammurapi
took over the city
civilization which they
found along the lower

Fig. 274. A Page of a Manuscript

Copy of the Koran, the Bible of

THE Moslems

This writing has descended from the an-
cient alphabet of the Phoenicians (Fig.
160), and, like the Phoenician writing, it
is still written and read from right to left. The Arab writers love to
give it decorative flourishes, producing a handsome page. The rich,
decorative border is a good example of Moslem art The whole page
was done by hand. In such hand-written books as these the educated
Moslems wrote out translations of the books of the great Greek phi-
losophers and scientists, like Aristotle ; for example, one of the most
valuable of the books "of Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer {§ 1059), we
now possess only in an Arabic translation. At the same time the
Moslems wrote their own treatises on algebra, astronomy, grammar,
and other sciences (§ 1 1 55) in similar books to which the West owes much

' '; -C •>-— "^^

^'"'^-^y

709

7IO

Ancient Times

Euphrates (§ 167), so now in the same region the Moslem Arabs
of the desert took over the city civilization of the New Persians.

With the ruins of Babylon look-
ing down upon them, the Mos-
lems built their splendid capital
at Bagdad beside the New Per-
sian royal residence of Ctesiphon
(headpiece, p. 667). They built
of course under the influence of
the ancient structures of Egypt,
Babylon, Persia, and Assyria.
The Babylonian temple towers
or Christian-church towers of
similar character showed them
the first models of the minarets
(Fig. 272, 2) with which they
■ adorned their mosques, as the
Moslem houses of prayer are
called. Here, as Sargon's people
and as the Persians had so long
before done, the once wander-
ing Arabs learned to read and
write, and could thus put the
Koran into writing. Here too
they learned the business of

government and became experi-

FiG. 275. Moorish Mosque , , ^, 1 . , ,

-r^^rr.T^^^T^AyTT.rA^r.^ TxrCr^ATXT euccd Tulcrs. Thus bcsidc the
Tower, or Minaret, in Spain

, ., , , . shapeless mounds of the older

It was built, not long before ^

1200 A.D., out of the ruins of

Roman and West Gothic buildings found here by the Moors, and

blocks bearing Latin inscriptions are to be seen in a number of places

in its walls. The Moors erected it as the minaret of their finest mosque

at Seville, Spain. After extensive alterations at the top by Christian

architects, it was converted into the bell tower of a Christian church.

While the Christian-church towers in the Orient strongly influenced

the Moslem minarets, we see how the reverse was the case in some

buildings of the West where Moslem minarets became church spires

The Triumph of the Barbarians 711

capitals, Akkad, Babylon, and Ctesiphon, the power and civili-
zation of the Orient rose into new life again for the last time.

Bagdad became the finest city of the East and one of the 1154. ea-
rnest splendid in the world. The caliphs extended their power dad^nd the
eastward to the frontiers of India. Westward the Moslems Moslem

advance to

pushed along the African coast of the Mediterranean, as their the West;
Phoenician kindred had done before them (§397). It was the of Tours
Moslem overthrow of Carthage and its bishop, which now ^^32 a. d.)
relieved the bishop of Rome (the Pope) of his only dangerous
rival in the West. Only two generations after the death of
Mohammed the Arabs crossed over from Africa into Spain
(711 A. D.). As they moved on into France they threatened to
girdle the entire Mediterranean. At the battle of Tours
(732 A.D.), however, just a hundred years after the death of
Mohammed, the Moslems were unable to crush the Prankish
army under Charles Martel (§ 11 44). They withdrew perma-
nently from France into Spain, where they established a west-
ern Moslem kingdom, which we call Moorish. The magnificent
buildings which it left behind are the most splendid in Spain
to-day (Fig. 275).

The Moorish kingdom developed a civilization far higher 1155. Lead-
than that of the Franks, and indeed the highest in Europe of Moslem
that age. Thus while Europe was sinking into the ignorance civilization
of the Middle Ages, the Moslems were the leading students
of science, astronomy, mathematics, and grammar. There was
soon much greater knowledge of these matters among the
Moslems than in Christian Europe. Such Arabic words as
algebra and our numerals, which we received from the Arabs,
suggest to us how much we owe to them.

As we look out over this final world situation, we see lying 1156. Emer-
in the middle the remnant of the Roman Empire ruled by forerunners^
Constantinople, and holding little more than the Balkan Benin- of^^oderrT"^
sula and Asia Minor; while on one side was the lost West, Europe
made up of the German kingdoms of the former Northern
barbarians ; and on the other side was the lost East, now part

712 Ancient Times

of the great oriental empire of the caliphs of Bagdad. Looking
at Europe without the East, we discover that there was at its
western end a Moslem oriental kingdom (the Moors), while at its
eastern end there was a Christian oriental state (Constantinople).
Between these lay chiefly the German Empire of Charlemagne,
with vast masses of Slavs on the east of it, and detached
German peoples in the outlying island of Britain. Out of
these fragments of the Roman Empire and the newly formed
nations of the North, the nations of modern Europe came forth.
In France, and the two southern peninsulas of Spain and Italy,
Latin speech survived among the people, to become French,
Spanish, and Italian. While in the island of Britain the German
language spoken by the invading Angles and Saxons (§ 1129),
mingled with much Latin and French to form our own English
speech, written with Roman letters inherited from Greece,
Phoenicia, and Egypt (Fig. 160).
1157. Sur- Thus Rome left her stamp on the peoples of Europe, still

fluences"of evident, not only in the languages they use, but also in many
laSr Europe ^^^"^ important matters of life, and especially in law and
government. In Roman law, still a power in modem govern-
ment, we have the great creation of Roman genius, which has
more profoundly affected the later world than any other Roman
institution. Another great achievement of Rome was the uni-
versal spread of that international civilization brought forth by
Greece under contact with the Orient Rome gave to that civ-
ilization the far-reaching organization which under the Greeks it
had lacked. That organization, though completely transformed
into oriental despotism, endured for five centuries and long
withstood the barbarian invasions from the North, which would
otherwise have overwhelmed the disorganized Greek world
long before. The Roman State was the last bulwark of civiliza-
tion intrenched on the Mediterranean against the Indo-European
barbarians. But the bulwark, though shaken, did not fall be-
cause of hostile assaults from without. It fell because of
decay within. .

The Triumph of the Barb afians 7^3

Nor did it fall everywhere. For, as we have seen, a fragment 1158. Sur-
of the vast Empire still survived in the East. The emperors fragm*entof
ruling at Constantinople traced their predecessors back in an ^'j^PoSSnti-
unbroken line to Augustus, and they ruled as his successors, nople, and

_ , , , . r • i^ 1 • i • • 1 . , its fall in

Founded on the site of an ancient Greek city, lying m the midst 1453 a.d.
of the Greek East, Constantinople had always been Greek in
both language and civilization. But at the same time, as we
have seen, it was largely oriental also. Notwithstanding this, it
never wholly lost the tradition of old Greek culture. Learning,
even though of a mechanical type, never died out there, as it
did so completely in the West; nor did art ever fall so low.
As Rome declined, Constantinople became the greatest and
most splendid city of Europe, exciting the admiration and sur-
prise of all visitors from the less civilized West. Thus the last
surviving fragment of the Empire, which by right of succession
might still continue to call itself Roman, lived on for a thou-
sand years after the Germans had completely conquered the
West. Nor did the Germans ever gain Constantinople, but in
1453 this last remnant of the Roman Empire fell into the hands
of the Turks, who have held it ever since.

Section 102. Retrospect

Besides the internal decay of Rome and the triumph of the 1159. From
Christian Church, the other great outstanding feature of the last hatchet to
centuries of the Roman Empire was the incoming: of the bar- *^^ ^^"?■

^ *^ tian civili-

barians, with the result that while Mediterranean civilization zationof
steadily declined, it nevertheless slowly spread northward, espe- Europe in
dally under the influence of the Church, till it transformed the sand*yei's
ruder life of the North. At this point then we have returned to
the region of western and northern Europe, where we first took
up the career of man, and there, among the crumbling monu-
ments of the Stone Age, Christian churches now began to rise.
Books and civilized government, once found only along the.
Mediterranean, reached the northern shores of Europe, where

714 Ancient Times

grass and great forest trees were growing over the shell heaps
of the Stone Age Norsemen (Fig. 13). What a vast sweep of
the human career rises before our imagination as we picture the
first church spires among the massive tombs of Stone Age man
(Fig. 20)!
1160. The We have watched the men of Europe struggling upward

oTclvuCatwn through thousands of years of Stone Age barbarism, while
andbarbansm ^Qv^^^rd the end of that struggle, civilization was arising in the
Orient. Then on the borders of the Orient we saw the Stone
Age Europeans of the ^gean receiving civilization from the
Nile and thus developing a wonderful civilized world of their
own. This remarkable ^gean civilization, the earliest in Europe,
was overwhelmed and destroyed by the incoming of those
Indo-European barbarians whom we call the Greeks (§ 380).
Writing, art, architecture, and shipbuilding, which had arisen
on the borders of southeastern Europe, passed away, and civili-
zation in Europe perished at the hands of the Greek nomads
from the Danube. Civilization would have been lost entirely,
had not the Orient, where it was born, now preserved it. South-
eastern Europe, controlled by the Greeks, was therefore able to
make another start, and from the Orient it again received writ-
ing, art, architecture, shipbuilding, and many other things
which make up civilization. After having thus halted civilization
iif Europe for over a thousand years, the Greeks left behind
their early barbarism (cf. Fig. 155), and, developing a noble and
beautiful culture of their own, they carried civilization to the
highest level it ever attained. Then, as the Indo-European bar-
barians from the North again descended to the Mediterranean
(Section 99), Roman organization prevented civilization from
being destroyed for the second time. Thus enough of the
civilization which the Orient and the Greeks had built up
was preserved, so that after long delay it rose again in
Europe to become what we find it to-day. Such has been
the long struggle of civilization and barbarism which we have
been following.

The Triumph of the Barbarians 715

To-day, marking the various stages of that long career, the ii6i. The
stone fist-hatchets lie deep in the river gravels of France ; the we'have fol-
furniture of the pile-villages sleeps at the bottom of the Swiss lowed to re-

^ ° ^ cover ancient

lakes ; the majestic pyramids and temples announcing the dawn history
of civilization rise along the Nile ; the silent and deserted city-
mounds by the Tigris and Euphrates shelter their myriads of
clay tablets ; the palaces of Crete look out toward the sea they
once ruled ; the noble temples and sculptures of Greece still
proclaim the new world of beauty and freedom first revealed
by the Greeks; the splendid Roman roads and aqueducts
assert the supremacy and organized control of Rome; and
the Christian churches proclaim the new ideal of human
brotherhood. These things still reveal the fascinating trail
along which our ancestors came, and in following that trail
we have recovered the earliest chapters in the wonderful
human story which we call Ancient History.

QUESTIONS

Section 99. Describe the German peoples at home ; in migra-
tion and war. Describe the incoming of the West Goths and the
results. What chief movements of the barbarians took place after
the death of Theodosius.? What was the effect upon the Western
Empire.? Describe the two great barbarian invasions of Italy in the
middle of the fifth century a. d. and the end of the line of emperors
at Rome. Describe Justinian's Digest. What had happened to the
old religions.? What did Justinian do about Greek philosophy?
Describe the division of the Church.

Section 100. Tell about Augustine and his writings. Describe
the growing power of the Church at Rome. Sketch the story of the
Franks and their alliance with the bishop of Rome. What elements
of culture had the church now gained ? What forms did early church
architecture have, and whence did they come ?

Section ioi. Tell the story of Mohammed. What did his sue
cessors accomplish in civilization ? in conquest t Describe briefly the
world situation which resulted. How long did the Roman Empire
last .? What influences did it leave behind 1

;i6

Ancient Times

Section 102. Where did mankind first gain civilization? Where
did civilization first arise in Europe? What happened when the
Greeks came in? Where was civilization then preserved? Who
carried it to its highest level ? By whom was it almost destroyed for
the second time? What organization saved it for the second time?

Note. The scene below shows us the condition of Europe at least fifty
thousand years ago, in the Early Stone Age (§§ 6-12), when man began the
long upward climb which carried him through all the ages of developing and
declining civilization which we have been following.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

It is not the aim of this bibliography to mention all of even the im-
portant books in various languages that relate to the periods in ques-
tion. The writer is well aware that teachers are busy people, and that
high-school libraries and local public libraries usually furnish at best
only a few historical works. It is therefore most important that those
books should be given prominence in this list which the teacher has
some chance of procuring and finding the time to use. It not infre-
quently happens that the best account of a particular period or topic is
in a foreign language or in a rare publication, such as a doctor's dis-
sertation, which could only be found in one of our largest libraries. All
such titles, however valuable, are omitted from this list. They can be
found mentioned in all the more scholarly works in the various fields.

A small high-school library on the ancient world, of moderate cost,
including a standard book or two on each main period or topic, has been
indicated in the following list by a dagger (t) before each title. From
these a selection can be made. The price will average not more than $i .50
per volume. Preference is sometimes indicated by double dagger (ft).
All books with a star (*) are suited chiefly for the teacher and are
rather advanced for the high-school student. Where a book is referred
to often, the star or dagger usually appears only with the first mention.

CHAPTER I

*SoiSLASy Ancient Hunters. ^Tyi^o^^ Primitive Culture. tHoERNES,
Primitive Man. tMvRES, The Dawn of History, chaps, i-ii, vii-xi. An
excellent little book in which only the traditional Babylonian chronology
needs revision. *SiR John Lubbock (Lord Avebury), Prehistoric
Times. *Osborn, Men of the Old Stone Age. A very valuable and
sumptuously illustrated presentation of Early Stone Age life.

CHAPTERS II AND III

Breasted, History of Egypt. tBREASTED, History of the Ancient A. Histories
Egyptians. *Hall, The Ancient History of the Near Easty chaps, ii-iv,
vi-viii.

717

7i8

Ancient Times

B. Art and
archaeology

C. Mythology
and religion

D. Socialiife

E. Excava-
tion and
discovery

F. Original
sources in
English

G. The mon-
uments as
they are to-
day

tMASPERO, Art in Egypt. A useful littfe manual in Ars una -^ species
mille. (Hachette & C'^ and Scribner's, New York.) *Maspero, Manual
of Egyptian Archaology. (Last edition, 191 4. Putnam's.) fHEDWiG
Fechheimer, Die Plastik der Aegypter (156 beautiful plates showing
the finest examples of Egyptian sculpture. The best series to be had,
and very low priced). t ' ^^

*Breasted, The Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient
Egypt.

tERMAN, Life in Ancient Egypt.

t Edwards, Pharaohs^ Fellahs., and Explorers. *Petrie, Ten Years'
Digging in Egypt. Wei gall. Treasury of the Nile. Two quarterly
journals begun in 1914, called Ancient Egypt (edited by Petrie ; ;^2.oo a
year; subscriptions taken by Dr. W. C. Winslow, 525 Beacon Street,
Boston, Mass.) and foumal of Egyptian Archceology (published by the
Egypt Exploration Fund). Both report discoveries in Egypt as fast as
made.

*Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Vols. I-V. fPETRiE, Egyptian
Tales. tMASPERO, Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt (translated from
the French by Mrs. C. H. W. Johns).

The Underwood & Underwood series of Egyptian views, edited by
tBREASTED, Egypt through the Stereoscope : a fourney through the Land
of the Pharaohs (100 views with explanatory volume and set of maps).
See remarks above, p. viii. t (Selected views, with explanations printed
on the backs, may be secured at moderate cost. The most useful fifteen
on Egypt are Nos. 17, 27, 29, 30, 31, 42, 48, 52, 57, 60, 62, 69, 82, 89, 97.)

CHAPTER IV

A. Histories *KiNG, History of Sumer and Akkad and *LIistory of Babylonia.

tGoODSPEED, Llistory of the Babylonians and Assyrians. Recent dis-
coveries have greatly altered the chronology. tC. H. W. Johns,
Ancient Babylonia (Cambridge Manuals). *Hall, The Ancient LListory
of the Near East^ chaps, v, x, xii. *Olm stead, Sargon of Assyria.
♦Rogers, A Llistory of Babylonia and Assyria.

B. Art and There is no handbook corresponding to Maspero's Art in Egypt.
archaeology *Handcock, Mesopotamian Archceology. *Hall, The Ancient Llistory

of the Near East. *Jastrow, Civilization of the Babylonians and
Assyrians.

C. Mythology *Jastrow, Aspects cf Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and
and religion Assyria. See also his Civilization.

D. Socialiife tSAYCE, Babylonian and Assyrian Life and Customs. *J astro w,

Civilization.

Bibliography yig

♦Rogers, A History of Babylonia and Assyria, Vol. I. There is no E. Excava-

loumal reporting discoveries in Babylonia and Assyria (like Ancient j'?'^ ^
■* r o J J \ discovery

Egypt above), but see the new journal of the American Archaeological
Institute, called Art and Archceology (j^2.oo a year; subscriptions taken
by The !^lacmillan Company, 64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York), which
repo»-ts discovery in the whole field of ancient man.

*R. F. Harper (Ed.), Assyrian and Babylonian Literature. fBoTS- F. Original
FORD, A Source Book of Ancient History, chap. iii. *Sayce (Ed.), gn'^fJh'^
Records of the Past (First Series, 12 vols.; Second Series, 6 vols.).
tC. H. W. Johns, Oldest Code of Laws in the JVorld (Laws of Hammurapi).
*KlNG, Letters of Hammurapi.

The buildings surviving in Babylonia and Assyria are in a very ruin- G. The
ous state. Photographs are now available in the excellent series by monuments
Underwood & Underwood on Mesopotamia. to-day

CHAPTER V

tGooDSPEED, History of the Babylonians and Assyrians. tC H. W. A. Histories
Johns, Ancient Assyria (Cambridge Manuals). *King, History of
Babylonia. *Hall, Ancient History of the Near East. *Olmstead,
Sargon of Assyria. *RoGERS, A History of Babylonia and Assyria.

There is no handbook of Assyrian art. The Patterson-Kleinmann B. Art and
series of photographs contains the most important Assyrian sculptures, archaeology
See also *Jastrow, Civilization.

On religion, social life, excavation and discovery, and original sources,
see the books mentioned under Chapter IV, above.

CHAPTER VI

There is no good modem history of Persia in English based on the A. Histories
sources, but see especially : f Benjamin, Story of Persia (Story of the
Nations Series). Meyer, " Persia," in Encyclopcedia Britannica. Raw-
LINSON, Eive Great Monarchies : Persia. *Hall, The Ancient History
of the Near East, chap. xii.

*Perrot and Chipiez, History of Art: Persia. Rawlinson, Mon- b. Art and
archies. archaeology

Meyer, " Persia," in Encyclopcedia Britannica. Rawlinson, Mon- C. Mythology
archies. ^"^ religion

*Jackson, Zoroaster. Rawlinson, Monarchies. D. Social life

t Jackson, Persia, Past and Present. This valuable book is the best E. Explora-

introduction to the subject of Persia as a whole, and contains much M°" ^^^

discovcrv
information on all the above subjects. IMichaelis, A Century of

Archceological Discovery.

*J20

Ancient Times

F. Original tToLMAN, The Behistan Inscription of King Darius. The Persian

E^T^V"^ monuments are not numerous, and this inscription of Behistun is the

most important. A considerable part of it will be found quoted in

BoTSFORD, A Source Book of Ancient History^ pp. 57-59. The Avesta

will be found in the series called Sacred Books of the East.

A. Histories

B. Mythology
and religion

C. Excava-
tion and
discovery

D. Social life

E. Original
sources in
English

F. Palestine,
its people and
monuments
as they are
to-day

CHAPTER VII

•George Adam Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land.
The most valuable of the many books on Palestine, but a little advanced
for high-school pupils. *Henry Preserved Smith, Old Testament
History. *Cornill, History of the People of Israel. fKENT, History of
the Hebrew People. ^Y^YMTy History of the fewish People. *llAi.L, The
Ancient History of the Near Easty chap. ix. tMACALlSTER, A History
of Civilization in Palestine (Cambridge Manuals).

*BUDDE, The Religion of Israel to the Exile. *Cheyne^ fewish Reli-
gious Life after the Exile, tj. M. Powis Smith, The Prophet and his
Problems (Scribner's).

Hilprecht, Recent Research in Bible Lands. IMacalister, A His-
tory of Civilization in Palestine (Cambridge Manuals). Current reports
will be found in fournal of the Palestine Exploration Fundy and in Art
and ArchcBology (see above).

Day, Social Life of the Hebrews.

The Old Testament in the Revised Version. tMooRE, The Literature
of the Old Testament. *Cornill, Introduction to the Canonical Books of
the Old Testament. *Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament.
tBoTSFORD, A Source Book of Ancient History^ chap. iv.

The Underwood & Underwood stereoscopic photographs (edited by
Hurlbut), Traveling in the Holy Land through the Stereoscope (100
views with guidebook and maps). t(A selection of the best ten would
include Nos. 8, 9, 18, 25, 39, 40, 41, 47, 61, 71.) Smith, George Adam,
The Historical Geography of the Holy Land. Paton, Guide to ferusalem.

CHAPTER VIII

A. Histories fBoTSFORD, Hellenic History, chap. i. tWESTERMANN, Ancient
A^//^«j, pp. 43-50. fGoOT>sVEET>, Ancient IVorld, pp. 6$-7 1. ttMvRES,
Dawn of History, chap. viii. tKiMBALL-BuRY, Students* Greece, chap. i.
tBuRY, History of Greece (second edition), pp. 1-43. ttREiNACH,
Story of Art, pp. 26-32. ttHAWES, Crete the Forerunner of Greece.
IBaikie, Sea Kings of Crete. fZiMMERN, Greek Commonwealth^ Pt. I
(second edition).

Bibliography 'J2 1

The surviving documents are here almost wholly archaeological, but B. Sources

a few selections bearing on this chapter are to be found in Botsford ^"5^ source
® '^ selections

and Sihler's Hellenic Civilization^ chap. ii.

CHAPTER IX

Botsford, Hellenic History, chap. ii. Westermann, Ancient Nation's, A. Histories
chap. vii. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 65-77. Myres, Dawn, chap,
ix. KiMBALL-BuRY, Students' Greece, chap. ii. Bury, Greece, chap. i.
*Hall, Ancient History of the Near East, pp. 31-72. Hawes, Crete.
Baikie, Sea Kings. *Mosso, Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization.

See note under preceding chapter, also fBoTSFORD, Source Book of B. Sources
Ancient History, chap. vii. seltcdonf

CHAPTER X

Botsford, Hellenic History, chap. iii. Westermann, Ancient A. Histories
Nations, chap. viii. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 83-87, 91-99.
Kimball-Bury, Students' Greece, chap. ii. Bury, Greece, chap. i.
tGREENiDGE, Greek Constitutional History, chap. ii. tfCAPPS, Homer
to Tkeocritus, pp. 14-1 2S. ^YLri-UEK, Homeric Life. *Seymovr, Homeric
Age. ZiMMERN, Greek Commonwealth.

ttBoTSFORD and Sihler, Hellenic Civilization, chap. ii. Botsford, B. Sources
Source Book of Ancient History, chaps, viii-ix. tTHALLON, Readings in ^"J^ source
Greek History^ chap, i. Selections from the Iliad and Odyssey.

CHAPTER XI

Botsford, Hellenic History, chap. iv. Westermann, Ancient A. Histories
Nations, chap. ix. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 79-82, 87-92, 100-
loi. KiMBALL-BuRY, Students'* Greece, chap. iii. Bury, Greece, chap. ii.
IAllcroft, History of Sicily, chaps, i-ii. Green idge, Greek Constitu-
tional History, chaps, ii-iii. Capps, Homer to Theocritus, pp. 129-140.
Keller, Colonization, pp. 26-50. Zimmern, Greek Commonwealth.

Botsford and Sihler, Hellenic Civilization, chap. iii. Botsford, B. Sources
Source Book, c}[i2ip.yS.. Herodotus {RAWl.lliSOfi),l'V, i $0-1 $g. Hesiodand and source
Theognis (Collins). Hesiod (Mair). Thallon, Readings, chaps, ii-iv.

CHAPTER XII

Botsford, Hellenic History, chaps, vi-ix. Westermann, Ancient A. Histories
Nations, chap. x. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 101-108, 115-
125. Kimball-Bury, Students' Greece, pp. 79-89, and chaps, v-vi.

722

Ancient Times

B. Sources
and source
selections

Greenidge, Greek Constitutional History, pp. 135-187. Bury, Greece^
pp. 144-162 and chaps, iv-v. Capps, Homer to Theocritus^ chaps,
vi-vii. ttBENN, Ancient Philosophy, chaps, i-ii. Reinach, Story of
Art, pp. 33-41. IMahaffy, Social Life in Greece, chaps, iv-v. Zim-
MERN, Greek Commonwealth.

BoTSFORD and Sihler, chap. iv. Botsford, Source Book, chaps, x,
xii-xiv. \ Aristotle^ s Constitution of Athens (Ken YON or Poste),
chaps, i-xxii. \Plutarch''s Lives of Theseus and Solon. \ Herodotus, I,
29-33, 59-64 ; III, 39-46, 120-125. Thallon, Readings^ chaps, iv and vi.

A. Histories

B. Sources
and source
selections

CHAPTER XIII

Botsford, Hellenic History, chaps, x-xi. Westermann, Ancient
Nations, Qkiic^.yAi. Goodsveeb, Ancient PVorld, pp. 126-144. Kimball-
BuRY, Students^ Greece, chaps, vii-viii. Allcroft, History of Sicily,
chaps, iii ff. Bury, Greece, chaps, vi-vii. Hall, Near East, chap. xii.
t Hogarth, Ancient East, pp. 120-186. *Abbott, Pericles, chap. iii.
*Grundy, Great Persian War.

Botsford and Sihler, pp. 162-172. tFLiNO, Source Book of Greek
History, chap. v. Botsford, Source Book, chaps, xv-xvi. Herodotus,
Bks. VI-IX, especially VII, 140-233. Plutarch's Lives of Aristides,
Themistocles, Pausanias. ^yEschylus' Persians, especially lines 355-520.
Thallon, Readings, chaps, vii-viii.

A. Histories

CHAPTER XIV

Botsford, Hellenic History. Westermann, Ancient Nations, chaps,
xiandxiii. GoOTtSYEEH, Ancient World, pp. 109-115, 144-155, 168-173.
KiMBALL-BuRY, Students'" Greece, pp. 64-74 ^^^ chaps, ix-x. Bury,
Greece, pp. 120-143 and chap. viii. ISeignobos, Ancient Civilization,
chap. xi. Greenidge, Greek Constitutional History, pp. 78-120, 189-
207. i Grant, Greece in the Age of Pericles, chaps, v-vii. *Abbott,
Pericles, chaps, iv-viii. Zimmern, Greek Commonwealth.

Botsford and Sihler, chaps, vi-vii. Botsford, Source Book, chap,
xvii. Plutarch's Lives of Aristides, Cimon, Lycurgus. Xenophoh' s State
of the Lacedemonians. Aristotle's Athenian Constitution, chaps, xxiii-
xxvii. t Thucydides (Jowett), I, 98-103, 127-139. Thallon, Readings,
chaps, v and ix.

CHAPTER XV

A. Histories BoTSFORD, Hellenic History. WESTERMANN, Ancient Nations, chaps.
xiv-xv. GooDSPEED, Ancient World, 156-169. Kimball-Bury, Stu-
dents'' Greece, chap. xi. Seignobos, Ancient Civilization, chap. xiv.

B. Sources
and source
selections

Bibliography

72Z

Bury, Greece, chap. ix. Grant, Age of Pericles, chaps, vii-x, xii. Benn,
Ancient Philosophy, chap. iii. ftTARBELL, History of Greek Art, chaps,
iii, vii, and viii. Capps, Homer to Theocritus, chaps, viii-xii. IMonroe,
History of Education, pp. 28-59. Mahaffy, Social Life in Greece,
chaps, vi ff. Abbott, Pericles, chaps, xvi-xviii. Zimmern, Greek
Commomvealth.

BoTSFORD and Sihler, chaps, viii-xi. Botsford, Source Book, chap,
xviii. Plutarch^s Pericles. Thallon, Readings, chap. ix.

B. Sources
and source
selections

CHAPTER XVI

Botsford, Hellenic History. Westermann, Ancient Nations, chap. A. Histories
xvi. GOODSPEED, Ancient World, pp. 174-199. Kimball-Bury, Stu-
dents' Greece, chaps, xii and xiv. Bury, Greece, chaps, x-xi. Allcroft,
Sicily. Grant, Age of Pericles, chap. xi. Abbott, Pericles, chaps,
xiv-xv. *Ferguson, Greek Imperialism, Lect. II. *Whibley, Political
Parties in Athens. Zimmern, Gi'eek Commonwealth.

Botsford and Sihler, chap. vi. Botsford, Source Book, chaps. B. Sources
xix-xx. Fling, Source Book, chap. vii. Plutarch's Lives of Alcibiades, ^"5^ source
Nicias, Lysander. Thucydides (Jowett), Selections. Thallon, Read-
ings, chaps, x-xii.

CHAPTER XVII

Botsford, Hellenic History. Westermann, Ancient Nations, chap. A. Histories
xvii. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 200-215. Kimball-Bury, Stu-
dents' Greece, chaps, xv-xvii. Allcroft, History of Greece, 404-362 b.c.
Bury, Greece, chaps, xii-xiv. Allcroft, Sicily. Capps, Homer to
Theocritus, pp. 330-338. fSANKEY, Spattan and Theban Supremacies.

Botsford, Source Book, chaps, xxii-xxiii. ^ Xenophon' s Anabasis, IV, B. Sources

7ff. ; Agesilaos (Dakyns). Nepos' Epaminondas. Plutarch's Lives of and source
„ , . , , ^. , rr. %, , , .... selections

Peloptdas and Ttmoleon. Thallon, Readings, chaps, xm-xiv.

CHAPTER XVIII

Botsford, Hellenic History. Westermann, Ancient Nations, pp. A. Histories
193-198. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 184-189, 215-220. Bury,
Greece (see Index). Allcroft, Histoiy of Greece, 404-362 n.c, chap. xi.
Capps, Homer to Theocritus, chaps, xv-xvii. Mahaffy, Social Life in
Greece, chaps, viff. Benn, Ancient Philosophy, chaps, iv-vi. Reinach,
Story of Art, pp. 50-58, 66-74. Monroe, History of Education, pp.
59-72. Tarbell, Greek Art, chap. ix. Ferguson, Greek Imperialism,
Lect. III. t Taylor, Plato. *Mauthner, Aristotle.

724

Ancient Times

B. Sources
and source
selections

BoTSFORD and Sihler, chaps, xii-xv. Fling, Source Book, chap,
viii. Thallon, Readings, pp. 513-516, 532-558. Xenophon's Economics
(Dakyns). Plato's Apology. Selections from Euripides in tApPLETON,
Greek Poets, and in fGoLDWiN Smith, Specimens of Greek Tragedy.
Aristophanes' Achamians and Birds (Frere in Everyman's).

A. Histories

B. Sources
and source
selections

CHAPTER XIX

BoTSFORD, Hellenic History. Westermann, Ancient Nations, pp.
187-193 and chap. xix. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 220-247.
KiMBALL-BuRY, Students' Greece, chaps, xviii-xx. Allcroft, History
of Greece, 362-323 b.c. Bury, Greece, chaps, xvi-xviii. f Hogarth,
Ancient East, pp. 186-217. Ferguson, Greek Imperialism, Lect. IV.
Capps, Homer to Theocritus, chap. xiv. fCuRTEis, Macedonian Empire.
t Wheeler, Alexander.

BoTSFORD and Sihler, chap, xvi, passim. Botsford, Source Book,
chaps, xxiv-xxv. Plutarch's Lives of Demosthenes, Phocion, Alexander.
^Am'an's Anabasis (selections). JuSTiN, History', Bk. IX (Bohn). De-
mosthenes' Crown and Third Philippic. Thallon, Readings^ chap. xv.
Davis, Readings, I, chap. ix.

A. Histories

B. Sources
and source
selections

CHAPTER XX

Botsford, Hellenic History. Westermann, Ancient Nations, chap.
XX. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 248-256, 258-269. *Gardner,
New Chapters in Greek History, chap. xv. Ferguson, Greek Imperialism,
Lects. V-VII. tSnucKBURGH, 6'?r^/&i'7/j/<??j, pp. 235-310. Greenidge,
Greek Constitutional History, chap. vii. Mahaffy, Problems in Greek
History, chap. ix. t Mahaffy, Progress of Hellenism, Lects. II-IV.
* Greek Life and Thought, chaps, iii-v, xvi.

Justin, History,Bk.l'X.. Plutarch' s Lives ofAratus, Demetrius, Pyrrhus,
Agis, Cleomenes, Eumenes. Fling, Source Book, chap. xiii. IPolybius*
Histories. Shuckburgh, Selections, especially on the Achaean League.

CHAPTER XXI

A. Histories BoTSFORD, Hellenic History. Westermann, Ancient Nations, chaps.
xxi-xxii. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 256-262, 265-267. Hogarth,
Ancient East, pp. 218-251. Mahaffy, Alexander's Empire, chaps, xiv,
XX, and xxiii; Progress of Hellenism, Lect. V; Greek Life and Thought,
chaps, i-ii, vi-xv. Monroe, History of Education, pp. 73-78. tTuCKER,
Life in Ancient Athens, chap. ix. Tarbell, Greek Art, chap. x. Capps,
Homer tQ TheoctituSi chap, xviii.

Bibliography

725

BoTSFORD and Sihler, chaps, xvi-xix. Botsford, Source Book, B. Sources
chaps, xxvi-xxvii. t Davis, Readings, I, chap. x. ^"^ source

CHAPTER XXII

Botsford, History of Rome, chaps, i-iv. Westermann, Ancient A. Histories
Nations, chaps, xxiii-xxv. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 276-325,
331-342. t Bryant, Short History of Rome, chaps, i-vii. t Fowler,
Rome, pp. 7-54. ttMvRES, Dawn, chap. x. Mosso, Dawn of Civiliza-
tion, chaps, xxi-xxii, xxiv-xxv. Jones, Companion to Roman History,
pp. 1-12. IHeitland, Short History of the Roman Republic, pp. 1-82.
tHow and Leigh, History of Rome, pp. 1-131. fPELHAM, Outlines,
pp. 45-67. tt Abbott, Roman Political Institutions, chicp.i'v. t Carter,
Religion of Numa. * Frank, Roman Imperialism.

Botsford, Story of Rome, chaps, i-iv ; Source Book, chaps, xxix-xxxi. B. Sources
Munro, Source Book, chaps, i, ii, iv, and v. Plutarch's Lives of Romulus, *".^ source
Numa, Pyrrhus, Camillus. Davis, Source Readings, II, pp. 1-40.

CHAPTER XXIII

Botsford, History of Rome, chap. v. Westermann, Ancient Nations, A. Histories
pp. 275-276, 279-284. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 326-331, 343-
346. Bryant, Short History, pp. 67-74. Fowler, Rome, pp. 55-83.
Heitland, Short History, pp. 82-97. fLlDDELL, Student's Rome, pp. 218-
229. *Greenidge, Roman Public Life, chap. vii. How and Leigh,
Rome,^^. 131-148. tSMiTH, Carthage and the Carthaginians. Frank,
Roman Imperialism.

Botsford, Story of Rome, pp. 101-104; Source Book, chap, xxxii. B. Sources
Munro, Source Book, chap. iii. Davis, Sotirce Readings, II, pp. 41-50. ^"^ ^T^"^^^

CHAPTER XXIV

Botsford, History of Rome, chap. v. Westermann, Ancient Nations, A. Histories
chaps, xxvi-xxvii. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 346-354. Fowler,
Rome, pp. 84-110. Bryant, ShoH History, pp. 73-79 and chapi. ix-xi.
How and Leigh, pp. 169-244. Liddell, i^<7w^, pp. 256-320. *Havell,
Republican Rome, pp. 156-274. Heitland, Short Histojy, pp. 98-145.
*MoRRis, Hannibal. Frank, Roman Imperialisin.

Botsford, Story of Rome, pp. 104-124; Source Book, chap, xxxiii.
Munro, Source Book, chap. vi. Davis, Source Readings, II, chap. iii.
Polybius, I, 56-62 ; III, 49-56. ^Livy, xxi, 32-38. Plutarch's Lives of
Fabius and Marcellus.

B. Sources
and source
selections

726

Ancient Times

CHAPTER XXV

BOTSFORD, History of Rome y pp. 1 16-150. Westermann, Ancient
Nations^ chaps, xxix-xl. Goodspeed, Ancient Worlds pp. 354-363,
365-392. Bryant, Short History, chaps, xii-xiv. Fowler, Rome,
pp. 1 10-135. tMASOM, Rome, isj-78 s.c, chap. i. tALLCROFT and
Masom, Rome, 202-133 n.c.y chaps, x-xiv. t Davis, Influence of Wealth
in Imperial Rome, chap. ii. Abbott, Roman Political Institutions,
chap. V. Greenidge, Roman Public Life, chap, viii; Roman History,
Vol. I, chap. i. *DuFF, Literary History of Rome, pp. 92-117. Pel-
ham, Outlines, pp. 149-198. Heitland, Short History, pp. 146-248.
t Abbott, Society and Politics in Ancient Rome, pp. 22-40.

BoTSFORD, Story of Rome, pp. 125-126 and chap, vi; Source Book,
chaps, xxxiv-xxxv. Davis, Source Readings, II, pp. 85-104. Monro,
Source Book, chaps, vii and xii. Livy, xxxiv, 1-8 ; xlv, 10-12. Plutarch's
Lives of Cato the Censor, Flaminius, ^milius Paulus.

chapter' XXVI

BoTSFORD, History of Rome, chaps, vii-viii. Westermann, Ancient
Nations, chaps, xxxi-xxxiv and pp. 379-382. Goodspeed, Ancient
World, pp. 392-428. Bryant, Short Histoiy, chaps, xv-xxvi. Fowler,
Rome, pp. 136-186. Heitland, Short History, pp. 249-512. -f Abbott,
Common People of Ancient Rome, pp. 235-286. Pelham, Outlines,
pp. 201-258, 398-469. Abbott, Roman Political Institutions, chaps,
vi-vii. How and Leigh, Rome, pp. 331-551. IPreston and Dodge,
Private Life of the Romans, chap. v. tALLCROFT, Rome, yS-ji n.c.
Frank, Roman Imperialism. *JoNES, Companion to Roman History.

Botsford, Story of Rome, chaps, vii-viii; Source Book, chaps, xxxvi-
xxxvii. MuNRO, Source Book, pp. 180-185 and chap. viii. Davis, Source
Readings, II, pp. 105-162. Plutaixh's Lives of Tiberius and Gaius Grac-
chus, Marius, Sulla, Crassus, Pompey, Cicero, Ccesar, Sertorius. t Ccesar's
Gallic War, I, 42-47. Sallusfs fugurthine War {^q\\xC).

CHAPTER XXVII

Botsford, History of Rome, pp. 204-232. Westermann, Ancient
Nations, pp. 382-403. Fowler, Rome, pp. 187-2 11. Goodspeed, An-
cient World, pp. 428-451. *Jones, Roman Empire, chaps, i-iii. tBuRY,
Student's Roman Empire, chaps, i-xii. Abbott, Roman Political Insti-
tutions, chap. xii. Davis, Influence of Wealth, chap, viu Pelham, Out-
lines, pp. 357-509. *Firth, Augustus, t Fowler, History of Roman

Bibliography 'J2J

Literature^ Bk. II. IIMackail, Roman Literature^ Bk. II, chaps, i-v.
tTucKER, Life in the Roman World, chap. v.

BOTSFORD, Story of Rome, chaps, ix-x ; Source Book, chaps, xxxviii- B. Sources
xxxix. MuNRO, Source Book, chaps, ix and xi. Davis, Source Readings, ^^^^^^
pp. 163-196. ILAING, Masterpieces of Latin Literature (selections);
\The Deeds of Augustus (Fairley's translation in the Pennsylvania
Translations and Reprints), Vol. V, No. i. Suetonius'' Lives of the
Ccesars (selections). \Tacitus'' Annals, XV, 38-45, 60-65.

CHAPTER XXVIII

BoTSFORD, History of Rome, pp. 232-266. Westermann, Ancient A. Histories
Nations, pp. 403-435. FowLER, Rome, pp. 211-251. Goodspeed, ^«-
cient World, pp. 451-482. Pelham, Outlines, pp. 509-541. Reinach,
Story of Art, pp. 75-83. tPELLlsoN, Roman Life iti Pliny^s Time, chap. ix.
*Mau and Kelsey, Pompeii, chaps, vii-viii, xii-xxii, xlvi-xlviii, Ivi-lix.
Tucker, Roman Life, chaps, i-iii, xix-xxi. Greenidge, Roman Public
Life, chap. xi. *Hardy, Studies in Roman ffistoty. Series I, chaps, i-v.
Jones, Roman Empire, chaps, iv-vi. Davis, Lnfluence of Wealth, chaps,
iii-vi. ^XSKY, Students^ Roman Empire. *Cumont, Oriental Religions in
Roman Paganism (an epoch-making work).

BoTSFORD, Story of Rome, chap, xi ; Source Book, chap, xl, Davis, B. Sources
Source Readings, II, pp. 196-287. Munro, Source Book, pp. 162-171, 176- ggigct^ons^
179. Letters of Pliny (Firth), New Testament, The Acts.

CHAPTER XXIX

BoTSFORD, History of Rome, chap. xii. Westermann, Ancient A. Histories
Nation s,c\i2L^?,. xl-xU. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 483-501. Jones,
Roman Empire, chaps, vii-xi. Oman, Byzantine Empire, chap. ii.
Abbott, Roman Political Lnstitutions, chap. xvi. *Wright, Palmyra
and Zenobia, chaps, xi-xv. Seignobos, Ancient Civilization, pp. 332-
346. Davis, Outline History, pp. 130-183. Pei^HAM, Outlines, pp.
1577-586. tCuTTS, St. ferome. Jones, Companion to Roman Histoiy.
*Cotterill, Medieval Ltaly, pp. 21-54. Davis, Lnfluence of Wealthy
chap. viii. *Uhlhorn, Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism,
pp. 420-479.

BoTSFORD, Source Book, chaps, xli-xliii, xlv. Davis, Source Readings, B. Sources
II, pp. 287-389. Munro, Source Book, pp. 171-174. tRoBiNSON, Read- ^^^ source
ings in Eiiropean History, Vol. I, pp. 14-27. The Notitia Dignitatum
(Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints).

728

Ancient Times

CHAPTER XXX

BoTSFORD, History of Rome ^ chaps, xiii-xiv. Westermann, Ancient
Nations^ chaps, xlii-xlv. Goodspeed, Ancient Worlds pp. 502-521.
tOMAN, Byzantine Empire, chaps, iii, vi, ix, xi-xii. Cotterill, Medieval
Italy, pp. 55-116, 159-185, 194, 205, 251-283. tHoDGKiN, Dynasty of
Theodosius, pp. 55-72, 134-203. fH. W. C. Davis, Medieval Etirope,
chap. i. Reinach, Story of Art, pp. 84-91. Jones, Roman Empire,
pp. 410-446. *HuTTON, Church and the Barbarians, chaps, iv-x.
♦Emerton, Introduction to the Middle Ages. *Morey, Outlines of
Roman Law.

BoTSFORD, Source Book, chaps, xliv-xlvi. Davis, Source Readings, II,
chaps, x-xi. fRoBlNSON, Readings in European History, Vol. I, pp.
19-27, 97-100 and chaps, iii-vi. Tacitus^ Germania. Ccesa^^s Gallic War,
VI, pp. 21-28. \Eugippus'' Life of St. Severinus (Robinson), fordanes*
Gothic History (MiEROW). English Correspondence of St. Boniface
(Kylie).

ADDITIONAL WORKS OF REFERENCE ON THE GREEK
AND HELLENISTIC AGE, TOPICALLY ARRANGED

The histories of Greece by Grote, Curtius, Holm, Abbott. fFREE-
MAN, Story of Sicily ; * History of Federal Government. *Deniker, Races
of Man. *Ferguson, Hellenistic Athens. *Bevan, House of Seleucus,
*Rawlinson, Bactria. *Hogarth, Philipp and Alexander. *Dodge,
Alexander. *Gk\J^'DY, Thucydides and the Histofy of his Age. *Tarn,
Antigonos Gonatas. '[Tii.lyard, Agathocles. *Maha¥FY, Silver Age of
the Greek World.

♦Gilbert, Greek Constitutional Antiquities. *Phillipson, Interna-
tional Law and Custom of Ancient Greece and Rome, t Calhoun,
Athenian Clubs in Politics and Litigation. *ToD, International Arbitra-
tion amongst the Greeks. *Whibley, Greek Oligarchies. fHAMMOND,.
Political Institution's of the Ancient Greeks.

ttGULiCK, Life of the Ancient Greeks. *GuHL and Koner, Life of the
Greeks and Romans. fGARDNER, Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals.
■[Bluemner, Home Life of the Ancient Greeks. fDAVlS, A Day in
Ancient Athens. *'DKYi-DSOti, Education of the. Greek People. *Mahaffy,
What have the Greeks done for Modem Civilization ? *Ball, Sho^t
History of Mathematics. *]oti'ES, Greek Morality. *VfKKT), The Ancient
Lowly. tDoNALDSON, Woman ; her Position and Influence in Greece
and Rome. *Abrahams, Greek Dress.

atlases, etc.

Bibliography 729

*Farnell, Higher Aspects of Greek Religion. *Murray, Four Stages
in Greek Religion. *Harrison, Religion of Ancient Greece. *Adam,
Religious Tecuhers of Greece. *Halliday, Greek Divination. * Fair-
banks, Mythology of the Greeks and Romans. fBuLFiNCH, Age of Fable.

^GxViD'S-E.Vi, Ancient Athens \* Handbook of Greek Sculpture. fFowLER E. Art and
and Wheeler, Greek Archceology. jRichardson, Vacation Days /^^ archaeology
Greece. *Schreiber, Atlas of Classical Antiquities (illustrated).

tFoWLER, Ancient Greek Literature. fCROlSET, Greek Literature.
^]YXO'iiS., Greek Literature. *'M.PlCVLKII., Lectures on Greek Poetry. *Jebb,
Greek Literature ; * Classical Greek Poetry ; * Attic Orators. *Lang,
Homer and the Epic. *Murray, Rise of the Greek Epic. *Moulton,
Ancient Classical Drama. *Haigh, Attic Theatre. tBuRT, Brief History
of Greek Philosophy. fMAYOR, Sketch of Ancient Philosophy. *Sandys,
Classical Greek Scholarship.

There is no cheap dictionary of classical antiquities, t Harper, G. Hand-
Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities. *Whibley, Com- ^^^^^
panion to Greek Studies. *Hall, Companion to Classical Texts. fTozER,
Ancient Geography. fSHEPHERD, Atlas of Ancient History. The new
series of individual maps of the ancient world by t Murray are very
valuable. fPuTZGER, Schulatlas. tSiEOLiN, Schulatlas. A new series
of classroom wall maps for ancient history (edited by ^Breasted &
Huth) is being published by the Denoyer Geppert Company, Chicago.

tMiCHAELis, A Century of Archceological Discoveries. *SCHUCHARDT,
Schliemann's Excavations. fBuRROWS, Discoveries in Crete. *Mosso,
The Palaces of Crete. *Garstang, Asia Minor. ttHAWES, Crete the
Forerunner of Greece.

The Underwood & Underwood series of stereoscopic photographs of
Greece and its monuments (edited by Richardson), Greece through the
Stereoscope (100 views with guidebook and maps). A short description
is also printed on the back of each view. See remarks above, p. viii.
■t(A selection of fifteen of the most useful views comprises Nos. i, 8,
2i» 35» 39» 42, 48, 54» 62, 64, 77, 80, 87, 96, 97.)

GREEK AUTHORS IN TRANSLATION .

/^chylus (Campbell, verse). Alcceus (Easby-Smith). Aristophanes
(Frere; Rogers). Aristotle (Kenyon ; Poste). Demosthenes (Ken-
nedy). Euripides (Murray ; Way). Herodotus (Rawlinson). Hesiod
(with Callimachus and Theognis, by Banks; with Theognis, Collins;
best translation of Hesiod alone, Mair). Homer: Lliad (Lang, Leaf,
Myers ; Bryant) ; Odyssey (Butcher and Lang ; Bryant). Isocrates

covery

730

Ancient Times

(Freese). Pausanias (Frazer). Pindar (Myers). Plato (Jowett).
Plutarch (Clough; selected Lives, by Perrin). Polybius (Shuck-
burgh). Strabo (Hamilton and Falconer). Thucydides (Jowett;
Crawley). Xenophon (Dakyns).

ADDITIONAL WORKS OF REFERENCE ON THE
ROMAN AGE, TOPICALLY ARRANGED

For a detailed criticism of the tradition about earliest Rome (p. 497,
note), see tlHNE, History of Rome. Other more extended and valuable
histories are those of Mommsen, Heitland, Duruy, Long, Ferrero,
Merivale, Gibbons. See also *Mommsen, Provinces. *Bussell, Roman
Empire. Other special works are *Dodge, Hannibal. *How, Han-
nibal and the Great War. fSTRACHAN-DAViDSON, Cicero. fBoissiER,
Cicero and his Friends, t Fowler, CcEsar. *Sihler, Julius Ccesar.
^Yio-LWES, Casar's Conquest of Gaul. *Shuckburgh, ^m^wj/wj. *Tar-
ver, Tiberius. *Baring-Gould, Tragedy of the Casars. ^Ca.V¥.s, Early
Empire. *Watson, Marcus Aurelius. *Bryant, Antoninus Pius.
*Gregorovius, Hadrian. *Henderson, Life and Principate of the
Emperor Nero. *Hopkins, Alexander Severus. *Hay, Heliogabalus.
*FiRTH, Constantine. fCuTTS, Constantine. *BoissiER, Roman Africa.
tBoucHiER, Life and Letters in Rontan Africa; *Roman Spain.
*Glover, Life and Letters in the Fourth Century.

tTAYLOR, Constitutional and Political History of Rome. *Mattingly,
Imperial Civil Service. *Botsford, Roman Assemblies. *Arnold,
Roman Provincial Administration. *Reid, Municipalities of the Roman
Empire. *Greenidge, Legal Procedure in Cicero^s Time. *Hadley,
Introduction to Roman Law. *Fowler, City State of the Greeks and
Romans. IBryce, The Roman and British Empires.

*DlLL, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius \ *}^oman Society
in the Last Century of the Western Empire, t Becker, Callus. *BuCK-
LAND, Roman Law of Slavery . flNGE, Society at Rome under the Ccesars.
t Johnston, Private Life of the Romans. *Ingram, History of Slavery.
*Friedlaender, Roman Life and Manners. tCHURCH, Roman Life
in the Day* of Cicero. *Oliver, Roman Economic Conditions. \ Roman
Farm Management, by a Virginia farmer (Fairfax Harrison).

*Carter, Religious Life of Ancient Rome. *FowLER, Religious Ex-
perience of the Roman People. fGRANGER, Worship of the Romans.
tGuERBER, Myths of Greece and Rome, t Murray, Manual of Mythology.
*Glover, Conflict of Religions. *Fisher, Beginnings of Christianity.
♦Hatch, Organization of the Early Christian Churches. *CUMONT,
Mysteries of Mithra,

Bibliography

731

*E. R. Barker, Buried Herculaneiim. *T. B. Platner, Topography
and Monuments of Ancient Rome. tC. HuELSEN, The Roman Forum.
*H. B. Walters, Art of the Romans. *R. Lanciani, Ruins and Exca-
vations of Ancient Rome \ * Pagan and Christian Rome. *J. Fergusson,
History of Architecture. fRAMSAY and Lanciani, Manual of Roman
Antiquities.

tt J. W. Mackail, Latin Literature. *Lawton, Classical Latin Litera-
ture. *C. T. Crutwell, History of Roman Literature. *Teuffel and
SCHWABE, History of Roman Literature. *W. Sellar, Roman Poets of
the Republic \ * Roman Poets of the Augustan Age. *E. V. ARNOLD,
Roman Stoicism. See works on ancient philosophy under Greece.

tMiCHAELiS, A Century of Archceological Discoveries. *Mau and
Kelsey, Pompeii^ its Life and Art. Barker, Buried Herculaneum.
*Peet, Stone and Bronze Ages in Ltaly. LANCIANI, Ruins and Excava-
tions of Ancient Rome.

The Underwood & Underwood series of stereoscopic photographs of
Rome and Italy (edited by Ellison and Egbert), Italy through the
Stereoscope (100 views with explanatory volume and set of maps). See
above, p. viii. t(A selection of the most useful fifteen views comprises
Nos. 21, 23, 25, 27, 30, T,2>> 34, 43, 45, 46, 47, 58, 60, 62, 91.)

E. Art and
archaeology

G. Explora-
tion and dis-
covery

H. The
monuments
as they are
to-day

ROMAN AUTHORS AND OTHER SOURCES FOR
ROMAN HISTORY IN TRANSLATION

Ammianus Marcellinus (Bohn Ed.). Appian (White). Ccesar (Bohn
Ed.). Cassidorus' Letters (Hodgkin). Cicero's Letters (Shuckburgh) ;
Works (Bohn Ed.). Dio Cassius (Foster or Carey). Eugippus' St.
^W/^nwwj (Robinson). ^<?ra!tr<? (Martin ; Lonsdale and Lee; Wick-
ham), fordanes (Mierow). fosephus (Whiston). fustitt, Nepos, and
Eutropius (Qohn 'Ed.), fuvenal {GiYYO-BJD). ZzVjj/ (Spillan ; Brodribb).
Z«fr^//«j (MuNRO). Marcus Aurelius (Rendall or Long). Monumen-
tum Ancyranum (Fairley). Ovid (Riley). Pliny's Letters (Firth).
Propertius (Moore). Salhcst, with Florus and Paterculus (Bohn Ed.).
Strabo (Falconer). Suetonius (Forester). Tacitus (Church and
Brodribb). Virgil (Bryce ; Crane).

1^,Jjt>

INDEX

KEY TO PRONUNCIATION

a as in fat
a as in errand
a as in face
a as in surface
a as in far
a as in fail
a as in ask
a as in sofa

e as in met
e as in prudent
e as in be
e as in begin
e as in her
i as in pin
I as in pine

o as in bonnet
o as in valor

5 as in bone
9 as in obey
o as in move

o like u in Jude'a

6 as in n6r
oi as in oil

u as m must
u as in muse
u as in musician
u as in nature
u as in pull
g as in get
h as in French boh
th as in thin

A'bra ham, 208
Abusir (aboser'), 235
Academy, 356, 420, 477 f.
Achaean (a ke'an) League, 450 f.
Achaeans (ake'anz), 254
Acropolis (a krop'5 lis), 261, 343,

364, 366 f.
Actium (ak'shi um), 599
Adrianople (ad ri an o'pl), 692
Adriatic (a dri at'ik), 345
i^galeos (e ga'le os), 322
^gean (6 je'an) world, 225 ff.;

oriental influences in, 240 f. ;

fall of, 255 ff.
^gina (ejrna), 331, 344
iEgospotami (e gos pot'a ml), 391
-^neas (eng'as), 601, 616
^neid (e ne'id), the, 616
^schylus (es'ki lus), 363, 371
^tolian (6 to'li an) League, 45
iEtolians (e to'li anz), 450
Agriculture in Late Stone Age,

22 ff. ; social effects of, 24
Agrippa (agrip'a), 6io, 612
Agrippina (ag ri pi'na), 620
Ahuramazda (aho ramaz'da), 185
Ak'kad, 121, 124 f
Alaric (ararik), 693
Alba Longa (al'ba long'ga), 492 ff.
Alcibiades (al si bl'a d6z), 383,

385 f-» 390

Alemanni (al e man'i), 691

Alexander (al eg zan'der) the
Great, 425 ff., 445 f.

Alexandria (al eg zan'dri a), 446,
450,461 ff.; Jews at, 453

Alexandrian (al eg zan'dri an) edu-
cation, 475 ff.

Alexandrian library, 472 ff., 594

Alexandrian literature, 475

Alexandrian Museum, 477

Alexandrian scientists, 468 ff.

Ali Baba (a'le ba'ba), 89

Alphabet, Egyptian, 42, 96!,
Phoenician, 270 ff., 501 ; Greek,

..27 If., 499 f.

A mar'na, tombs at, 92 f., 204 ;

.. letters at, 93 f.

A men ho'tep III, 89

Amenhotep IV, 91 ff.

Am'pn, 415, 439

Amorites (am'5 rits), 104, 128

A'mos, 208 f.

Amphicty onies ( am fik'ti p niz) ,291

Amphitheater, 644, 650

Ancyra (an si'ra), 617

Andronicus (an drp nl'kus), 560

Angles (ang'glz), 694

Animals of prehistoric Europe,
3 f. ; domestication of, 24

An tig'o nus, 446

Antigonus II, 449

733

734

Ancient Times

Antioch (an'ti ok), 448, 450
Antiochus (an U'o kus), 445, 448
Antiochus the Great, 55of.
Antoninus Pius (an to nl'mis

pi'us), 634, 664
Antony (an'tpni), 586 f., 596 ff.
Apelles (a pel'ez), 466
Aphrodite (af r5 di'tg), 279, 502
Apollo (a poro), 315 f.
Apollodorus (a pol 5 dO'rus), 409
A ra'bi a, loi f.
Ar'abs,"7o8ff.
Aramaic (ar a ma'ik), 1 46 f . ;

triumph of, 148, 183, 190
Arameans (arame'^nz), 144 ff.,
.. 162

Ar be'la, 435

Arcadius (ar ka'di us), 692 f.
Archimedes (ar ki me'dez), 467 f.
Areop'agus, 313, 341, 3^3
Arginusae (arjinu'se), 391
Ar'go lis, 331
Ar'gos, 283
A ria'na, 176

Aristarchus (ar is tar'kus), 469,656
Aristogiton (a ris to ji'ton), 306,

313
Aristophanes (ar is tof'a ngz), 383,

416
Aristotle (ar'istotl), 428, 471, 478
Armenians (arme'ni anz), 255, 629
Arrian (arl a^), 655
Ar'te mis, 279

Artemisium (ar te mish'ium), 330 f.
Aryans (ar'yanzj, 176 ff.
Asculum (as'kulum), 517
Asia (a'shia), 86, 89
Asia Minor (mrnor), 226, 248 f.,

643

Assur (as'or), 140 f., 150 f.

Assurbanipal (a sor ba'ni pal), 160

Assyria (asir'ia), 140 ff., 148 f.,
210 ff., 629

Assyrian (a sir'i ^n) art and sculp-
ture, 1 58 f .

Assyrian civilization, 158

Assyrian Empire, 151 ff., I55ff.,
160 ff.

Assyriology, 194

Astrology, 168

A the'na, 279, 362, 369

Ath e ne'um, 643

A the'ni an art and literature, 362 ff.
Athenian Empire, 339 ff., 378 ff.
Athenian government, 303 ff.,

341 f., 361, 363 f., 379
Athenian law, 303, 305
Athenian money and prices, 346
Athenian society, 350 f.
Athenian war, cost of, 347
Athens (ath'enz), 284, 296, 298,

336 ff., 344 ff., 420, 613
Athletic games, 290 f., 307 f.
Ath'os, Mount, 324, 328, 439
Attica (at'i ka), 283, 324, 346
Attila (atl la), 694
Augustan {% gus'tan) Age, 607 ff.
Augustine (§, gus'tin), 699 f.
Augustus (a gus'tus), 596 ff.
Aurelian (a re'lyan), 676
Australia (as tra'lia), 3
A ves'ta, 179

Ba'bel, Tower of, 112

Babylon (bab'ilon), 128, 133, I52f.,

i64ff.
Babylonia (bab i lo'ni a), 105 f.
Babylonian (bab i lo'ni an) art and

architecture, 137
Babylonian astrology, 168, 661
Babylonian divination, 134, 503
Babylonian education, 135 f.
Babylonian religion, 134
Bagdad', 710

Balearic (bal e ar'ik) Islands, 525
Barbarian invasions, 688 ff.
Basilica (ba sill ka) church, 702 ff.
Behistun (be his ton') inscription,

184 f., 190 ff., 194
Bel i sa'ri us, 696
Belshazzar (bel shaz'ar), 181
Black Sea, 344
Boeotia (be o'shia), 284, 334, 402,

404
Boghaz-Koi (bo'ghaz ke'e), 249
Book of the Dead, 91
Bos'po rus, 683
Brindisi (bren'de se), 487
Britain (brit'an), 589, 694, 701
Bronze Age, 222 ff., 227
Brundisium (brun dish'i um), 487
Brutus (bro'tus), 596, 598
Burgundians (bergun'di anz), 693
Byzantium (bi zan'shi um), 683

Index

735

Caere (se're), 499, 521
Caesar (se'zar), 586 ff., 613
Calendar, 45, 467, 595
Caligula (ka lig'u la), 618 f.
Callimachus (ka lim'a kus), poet,

473> 475

Callimachus, soldier, 326

Callisthenes (kalis'the nez), 443

Cambyses (kam bi'sez), 182

Canaanites (ka'nanits), 104, 200 f.

Cannae (kan'e), 540 f.

Capua (kap'u a), 497, 521 f., 543

Carchemish (kar'kem isli), 241

Carthage (kar'thaj), 267, 333, 439,
490, 518, 520 ff., 546

Carthaginian (kar tha jin'i an) civ-
ilization, 526

Carthaginians, 489

Cassius (kash'ius), 596, 598

Catiline (kat'illn), 586 f.

Cecilia Metella (sesill a metera),
492

Cecrops (se'krops), 407

Censors, 505, 509

Ceres (se'rez), 502

Chaeronea (ker 9 ne'a), 428

Chaldean (kal de'an) Empire,
164 ff., 213

Chaldeans (kal de'anz), 162

Chalons (shal6h'), 694

.Champollion (sham poFi on) 96 ff.,

455
Charlemagne (shar'Ie man), 702
Charles Martel (marter), 702
Cheops (ke'ops), 56
Chephren (kef'ren),.56
Chios (ki'os), 300
Christianity, 663 f., 682 ff.
Church, African, 699 ; Eastern,

. 698 ff. ; Western, 698 ff.
Cicero (sis'e ro), 586 f., 597, 613 f.
Cimbrians (sim'bri anz), 597
Cimon (si'mon), 339, 341, 356
Claudius (kla'di us), 619 f.
Cleomenes (kl6 om'e nez), 451
Cleon (kle'on), 383 f.
Cleopatra (kle o pa'tra),455, 593 f.,

598 f.
Clerestory, 70 f.
Clisthenes (klis'the nez), 306 f.,

342
Clitus (kli'tus), 442

Clovis (klo'vis), 701

Cnidus (nl'dus), 300

Cnossus (nos'us), 233 f.

Coloni (kolo'ni), 668 f.

Colosseum (kol o se'um), 622, 649

Comitia (ko mish'ia), 507 f.

Commodus (kom'o dus), 673

Constantine (kon'stan tin), 683 f.

Constantinople (kon Stan ti no'pl),
683 f.

Consuls, 504 f., 509

Copper Age, 222 f.

Cor'inth, 296, 331, 344, 348, 552

Corinthian War, 401 ; architec-
ture, 407 f .

Corsica (kor'si ka), 535

Council of Five Hundred, 361,

365
Crassus, 587, 590
Crete (kret), 227 ff., 235 f., 248
Croesus (kre'sus), 180 f.
Ctesiphon (tes'i fon), 667, 675
Cumae (ku'me), 521
Cuneiform writing, iiof., 189 f.,

242
Cynocephalae (sin os sef a le), 550
Cyrene (si re'ne), 415, 525
Cyrus (si'rus) the Great, I79ff.
Cyrus the Younger, 399 f.

Dacians (da'shi ans), 627, 630
Damascus (da mas'kus), 151, 211
Darius (dari'us) the Great, 185,

324 ff.
Darius III, 431, 435
David, 204 f.
Decelea (des e le'a), 389
Delian (deli an) League, 339, 348,

390
De'los, 297, 339, 348
Delphi (del'fi), 315 ff., 643, 684
Deme'ter, 279, 315, 502
Democracy, 301 ff., 307, 395 f., 406
Demosthenes (de mos'the nez),

427 f-
Demotic (de mot'ik) writing, 44
Den'mark, 17 ff., 223
Dictator, 506, 531, 539
Diocletian (di o kle'shian), 676 ff.
Dionysius (di onish'i us), gram

marian, 474 f.
Dionysius, tyrant, 490

736

Ancient Times

t)i6nysus (dt 6 nt'siisji zj^, ^id,

362
t>ipylon (dip'i Ion) Gate; 363
JDdniitiiii (dd iiiish'ian), 627
bdridris (do'ri anz)j 254 f;
Por'ic column, 311, 340, 367, 370
Draco (dra'k5), 303
Dru'sus, 581
Dur-Sharrukin (d6r-sh5,r rd ken'),

152

Early Stone Age, 5 ff.
Ecbdtdna (ek bat^^ na), 437
Egyptj 3Sff'l Stond'Age of, 38}

conquered by Assyria, 1 53 f. ;

conquered by Alexander) 434 1

a Rprhan prdVineej |9d
fegyritiaii art land krehiteetufej

fegyiitiari classes of society, 67
Egyptian emperors, burial place

of, 94 f .
Egyptian Empire, 80 ff. ; higher

life of, 86 ff. ; religion in, 91 ff.,

659 ; fall of, 93 ff.
Egyptian gods, 50
Egyptian industrial progress, 62 ff.
Egyptian pyramids, 49 ff.
Egyptian science, 78
Egyptian slaves, .67
Egyptian tombs, 49 ff.
Egyptian writing, 40 ff., 96 ff.
Egyptology, 98

Elephantine (el e fan ti'ne), 459
Eleusis (e lu'sis), 315, 415
Elijah (e irja), 207
Embalming, 49
E pam i non'das, 403 f .
Ephesus (ef e sus), 450
Epicureanism, 478
Epimachos (epim'^kos), 630
E pi'rus, 517
Eratosthenes <er a tos'the nez),

459, 469, 47 if.
Erechtheum (e rek tlie'um), 367,

407
E re'tri a, 324
Ergoti'mos, 297
Eskimos (es'ki moz), 12
Etruscans (e trus'kanz), 488 f.,

495 ff-
Euaenetus (Qe'netus), 381

feuijoe^ (d b6'a)i 324
Euclid (a'klid), 460!
EU^ati-ids (ii pat'ridz)} 284
Euripides (i\ rip'i dez), 372 f.j 4oo<

406
Europe (u'rop), 3 ff., 221 ff.

Fa'bi us, 540

Fabricius (fabrish'i us), 494

Fertile Crescent, 10 1

Feudal Age in Egypt, 74 ff. ; tombs

of, 76; administration in, 79;

commerce of, 79 ; decline of,

8(5
Fire-making, 3, 5
Fla mini us, I39, liKi'.
t'lryUii eWpgrdrsj bzf
Flirit implements, iol.
i^orum, 495, 509, 609
Franks, 691, 701

Gains Gracchus (ga'yus grak'us),

577
Galatia (gS, la'shia), 449
Ga le'ri us, 686

Gallic invasion of the East, 449
Gard (gar) River, 646
Gaul (gai), 588 ff.
Gelon (jrion), 333
German barbarians, 579, 588, 626,

664, 674, 682, 688 ff.
Girgamesh, 127
Gizeh (ge'ze), pyramids of, 49 ff.
Gladiators, 564
Glass-making in Egypt, 64 f .
Gortyna (g6r ti'na), 304
Goths, 691, 695
Gracchi (grak'I), 576 ff.
Granicus (grani'kus), 430
Great Mother, 414
Greek architecture and sculpture,

292, 310 ff., 406 ff.
Greek colonies, 287 ff.
Greek commerce, 287, 295 ff,
Greek education, 308
Greek games, 290 f., 307 f.
Greek genius, 423
Greek gods, 278 ff.
Greek language, spread of, 453
Greek literature, 293, 315
Greek music, 308 f.
Preek painting, 2^1^ f., 406 if.

Index

737

Greek religion, 276 ff., 315, 480

Greek sciences, 359 f-, 419

Greek slaves, 298

Greek theater, 371, 374

Greek vases, 314

Greeks, 217, 250, 252 ff.; social

institutions of, 259; kings of,

260, 286 ; agriculture of, 260 ;

supremacy of, 344 ff. ; in Italy,

490
Gregory (greg'o ri), 701
Guinea (gin'i), 471, 525
Gylippus (ii lip'us), 387

Hades, 315

Ha'dri an, 630 ff., 636, 650

Hamilcar Barca (ha mil'kar
bar'ka), 534

Hammurapi (hammora'pe), i28ff.;
code of, 130 ff.

Hannibal (han'i bal), 535 ff.

Har mo'di us, 306, 313

Hasdrubal (has'dro bal), 543 f.

Hatshepsut (hat sliep'sot), 83 f.

Hebrew (he'bro) civilization, 201 f.

Hebrew kingdom, 200 ff. ; divided,
206 ff.; destruction of, 210 ff.

Hebrew literature, 208, 216

Hebrew religion, 214

Hebrew writing, 209

Hebrews, 144 f., 197 f.; exile of,
213 f.; religion of, 214; re-
stored, 216

Hecataeus (hekate'us), 318 f.,
360

Helicon (hel'l kon), Mount, 293

Hellenes (hel'enz), 291 f.

Hellenistic (hel e nist'ik) Age,

453 ff-
Hellenistic architecture, 560
Hellenistic world, 481 ff.
Hellespont (herespont), 324, 328,

339
Hephaestion (hefes'ti on), 443
He'ra, 279

Heraclea (herakle'a), 517
Heracleia (herakli'a), 472
Hermes (her'mez), 279, 502
Herodes Atticus (he rO'dez

at'i kus), 642
He rod's tus, 360 f., 363, 419
He'si od, 293

Hieratic (hi e rat'ik) writing, 44
Hieroglyphics, 44 f.; deciphered,

96 ff.; in Crete, 229; Hittite

(hit'it), 241
Hipparchus (hi par'kus), 306
Hippias (hip'i as), 306, 324
Hippocrates (hi pok'ra tgz), 361,

375

Hi'ram, 205 f.

Hittite (hit'it) art and architec-
ture, 242

Hittite Empire, 243 f. ; fall of, 255 f.

Hittite influence, 240 ff., 248 ff.

Hittite religion, 242 f.

Hittite writing, 241 f.

Hittites, 93 f., 143, 149, 199,. 202,
239 f.

Ho'mer, 275 f., 375

Ho no'ri us, 692 f.

Horace (hor'as), 61 5 f.

Horse, in Egypt, 80 f . ; in Baby-
lonia, 138, 143

Huns (hunz), 692

Ice Age, 7 f.

Ictinus (ikti'nus), 369

Ikh na'ton, 92 ff.

lUyricum (i lir'i kum), 693

Imhotep (em ho'tep), 52

In'di a, 437

Indian Ocean, 79, 437

Indo-European peoples, 171 ff.

lonians (i o'ni anz), 316, 318 ff.,

322 ff.
Ionic (I on'ik) column, 340, 367 f.
Iphigenia (if i je ni'a), 410
Iran (e ran'), 176
Iranians (i ra'ni anz), 176 ff.
Iron Age, 157, 263
Isaac (i'zak), 208
Isaiah (i za'ya), 210 f.
Ish'tar, 134, 151, 168
Is'lam, 706

Isocrates (I self ra t6z), 420, 422
Israel (iz'ra el), 206
Issus (is'us). Gulf of, 430 f.
Italic tribes, 488
Italy (it'a 11), 485 ff.

Jacob, 208

Jeremiah (jeremi'a), 213

Jericho (jer'i k5), 203

738

Ancient Times

Jerusalem (je ro'sa lem), besieged,
210 f.; destroyed, 213; rebuilt,
216; taken by Sulla, 585; de-
stroyed, 626

Jesus, 115, 661 f., 705

Joseph, 208

Judah (jo'da), 206

Judaism, 216, 661

Jugurtha (jo ger'tha), 578 f.

Julian (jo'lyan) "the Apostate,"
686 f., 691"

Juno (jo'no), 502

Jupiter (jo'pi ter), 502

Jus tin'i an, 695 ff ., 705 f . ; code of,
697

Kaldi (kal'de), 162
Kar'nak, 80 ff.
Kassites (kas'its), 144
Khafre (kaf'ra), 56, 70 f.
Khufu (ko'fo), 54, 56
King's Peace, 401
Ko'ran, 707
Kuyunjik (koyon jek'), 435

Laconia (la kO'ni a), 283
Lake-dweliers, Swiss, 21 f.
Laocoon (la ok'o on), 465
Late Stone Age, 14 ff.; tools in,

20 ; architecture in, 26 ; festivals

and athletic contests in, 28 ;

trades in, 29 ; commerce in, 31 ;

wars in, 32 ; in Italy, 486
Latin League, 511, 513
Latin literature, 562 f.
Latin war, 520
Latins, 492 f.

Latium (la'shium), 492 ff., 616
Laws, oldest surviving code of,

132 ; earliest, in Greece, 303
Le on'i das, 330
Lep'i dus, 597
Leuctra (luk'tra), 404
Library, at Alexandria, 472 ff., 594 ;

at Rome, 614
Licinius (llsin'ius), 575 f.
Lictors, 508

Lilybaeum (111 i be'um), 517
Livy (liv'i), 614 f.
.Lom'bards, 701
Lucullus (lu kurus), 585
Lyceum (lis6'um), 356, 478

Lydians (lid'i anz), 322
Lysander (li san'der), 391, 401 f.
Lysiades (lisradez), 381
Lysicrates (lisik'ratgz), 381

Macedon (mas'6 don), 426, 550
Macedonia (mas 6 dO'ni a), 426
Magi (ma'ji), 661
Magnesia (mag ng'shia), 551
Man ti ne'a, 404
Mar'a thon, 324 ff.
Marcellus (marsel'iis), 610
Marcus Aurelius (mar'kus % re'-

11 us), 664 f.
Mar do'ni us, 328, 333 f.
Marduk (mar'dok), 134, 168
Ma'ri us, 579 ff.
Mars, 502

Massilia (ma sill a), 290
Mausoleum (m§, s6 le'um), 408
Mausolus (mS, solus), 406
Mayors of the Palace, 701
Mecca (mek'a), 706 f.
Medes (medz) and Persians (per'-

shanz), 162, 177
Median Empire, 177
Meg'a ra, 303
Memphis (mem'fis), 57
Me nan'der, 562
Menes (me'ngz), 58
Mercury (mer'ku ri), 502
Mesopotamia (mes o po ta'mi a),

629
Messina (messe'na), 528
Metal, Age of, 47 f., 222 f., 486 f.
Metaurus (me t^'rus) River, 543
Middle Stone Age, 9 ff.
Ml le'tus, 316, 324
Miltiades (mil ti'a dez), 325 f.
Mithradates (mith ra da'tez), 583,

585
Mith'ras, 195, 678
Mitylene (miti le'ne), 383
Mnesicles (ne'siklez), 367
Mohammed (mp ham'ed), 706 ff.
Mohammedan conquests, 709
Money, in Athens, 346; in Greece,

299 ff.; in the Orient, 186, 299 f.
Monica (mon'i ka), 699
Monks, 700, 702
Monotheism, in Egypt, 92 f.; in

Palestine, 214

Index

739

Moors (morz), 710 f.
Moses (mo'zez), 200
Moslems (mos'lemz), 702, 707 ff.,

711 f.
Mycale (mik'a le), 334
Mycenae (mi'se'ne), 237 f., 247 f.
Mycenaean (mi se ne'an) Age,

236 ff.

Na'hum, 163
Na po'le on, 455
Na ram'sin, 1 23 f.
Naucratis (n^'kratis), 289
Nebuchadnezzar (neb u kad nez'-

ar), 164 ff., 213, 368
Nemausus (ne ma'sus), 646
Ne'ro, 620 ff.
Ner'va, 627, 634

New Persia (per'sha), 675, 678, 705
New Testament, 662
Nicaea (ni se'a), 686
Nicias (nish'i as), 384 ff.
Nicomedia (nik o me'di a), 679
Nile (nil), 37 ff.
Nimes (nem), 646
Nineveh (nin'e ve), 154 f., 163, 213
Nippur (nippor'j, 112, 116, 117
Nobles, Greek, leadership of, 283 ff.
Nomads, 25 f.

North American Indians, 4, 40
Nu'bi a, 86, 89

Octavian (ok ta'vi an), 596 ff.

Odoacer (o do a'ser), 695

Old Testament, 217

Oligarchy, 395

Olympian (0 lim'pi an) games, 308,
356

Oracles, 315

Orient, achievements of, 218 ff.;
influence on Greece, 264 f. ; re-
vival of, 705 ff.

Orpheus (dr'fus), 414

O si'ris, 50, 91

Ostracism, 306 f .

Os'tro-Goths, 695

Paestum (pes'tum), 522
Painted Porch, 363, 365, 497
Pa ler'mo Stone, 46
Palestine (parestin), 197 ff., 256
Palmyra (pal mi'ra), 676

Panathenaea (pan ath e ne'a), 362

Paper, making of, 43 f., 64 f.

Papyrus (papi'rus), 43 f.

Par me'ni 0, 431, 437, 442

Parrhasius (para'shi us), 411

Par'the non, 367, 369 f.

Parthians (par'thi anz), 590, 595,
628 f., 675

Pasargadae (pa sar'ga de), 182, 189

Patesis (pata'sez), 113, 119

Paul, 638, 662, 700

Pausanias (p§, sa'ni as), geog-
rapher, 655

Pausanias, Spartan general, 334

Peloponnesian (pel 0 po ne'shian)
War, First, 348 f.; Second,
380 ff.; Third, 385 ff.

Per'ga mum, 453, 463 f., 472

Per i an'der, 303

Pericles (per'i klez), "344, 348,
350 ff., 38 Iff.

Peripatetics (per i pa tet'iks), 477 f.

Per sep'o lis, 189

Persian (per'shan) art and archi-
tecture, 189

Persian Empire, 182 ff.

Persian kings, 194 f.

Persian religion, 195

Persian roads and communica-
tions, 187 f.

Persian sea power, 187

Persian War, Athens in, 348

Persian writing, 183

Persians, 179 ff., 322 ff., 389 f.

Peter, 700

Phalerum (fale'rum), 331

Pharaoh (fa'ro), 53

Pharsalus (farsa'lus), 592 f.

Phidias (fid'i as), 367, 369, 382

Philae (fi'le), 459

Philip, 426 ff.

Philippi (filip'i), 598

Philistines (fi lis'tinz), 202 f., 256

Philosophy, 316, 318 ff.

Philotas (iilo'tas), 441

Phoenicia (f e nish'a), 58

Phoenicians (fe nish'anz), 144 f.,
265 ff., 290, 328, 471; alphabet
of, 270

Phonetic writing, 40 ff.

Phrygians (frij'i anz), 255

Pictorial records, 39 ff.

740

Ancient Times

Pin'dar, 309, 415, 429

Piraeus (pi rg'us), 332, 339, 344,

348
Pi sis'tra tus, 306
Plataea (pla t6'a), 326, 334, 684
Pla'to, 411, 418, 420 f., 428
Plautus (pla'tus), 562
Plebs, 506

Pliny (plin'i), the elder, 655 f.
Pliny, the younger, 635, 654 f.
Plow culture, 25
Plutarch (plo'tark), 655
Pnyx (niks), 343, 366
Polybius (po lib'i us), 561 f.
Polygnotus (pel ig nO'tus), 363
Pompeii (pom pa'ye), 410, 557,

559, 636 f., 639
Pompey (pom'pi), 584 ff., 590 ff.
Poseidon (p5 si'don), 279
Pottery, in Egypt, 63 ; in Europe,

19
Praetor (prg'tor), 506
Praxiteles (praks it'e lez), 408
Prehistoric Europe, 3 ff.
Prie'ne, 458, 460 f., 476
Psyttaleia (sit'ali'a), 332
Ptolemies (tore miz), 86, 446 f.,

593

Ptolemy (td'e mi), astronomer,
656 f.

Punic War, First, 533 ff. ; Second,
535 ff.; Third, 546 f.

Pyramid Age, 49 ff. ; agriculture
in, 61 ; art and architecture in,
68 ff.; cattle raising in, 61 f. ;
classes of society in, 67; com-
merce in, 58 f. ; government in,
53 ff. ; length and date of, 57 f. ;
occupations in, 62 ff.

Pyrrhus (pir'us), 517

Pythagoras (pi thag'o ras), 319

Pytheas (pith'e fts), 471

Quaestors (kwes'torz), 505

Ramses (ram'sez) II, 94

Ramses III, 257

Rawlinson (r^'lin son), 190 ff.

Re (ra), 50

Red Sea, 59

Rhetoricians, 420

Rhodes (r5dz), 450, 465, 613

Roman amusements, 564 f.

Roman army, 528 ff.

Roman art and architecture, 523,

608, 610
Roman Church, 698 ff.
Roman colonization, 512
Roman commerce and banking,

554 f., 640
Roman conquests, 552 ff.
Rqman degeneration, 570, 669
Roman Empire, 601 ff. ; civilization

of the early Empire, 649 ff. ;

decline of, 667 ff. ; division of,

682 ff., 692
Roman government, 504 ff., 520 ff.
Roman house, 556 ff.
Roman imperial organization,

552 ff.
Roman money, 501 f., 523, 671
Roman painting, 653
Roman provinces, 553 ff., 604 ff.,

636 ff., 641
Roman religion, 502 ff., 659 ff.
Roman Republic, 504, 507, 511;

end of, 574 ff.
Roman roads and bridges, 638 f.
Roman schools, 561
Roman sculpture, 652
Roman Senate, 506, 509, 574 ff.
Roman ships, 501, 534
Roman slaves, 566 ff., 669
Roman theaters, 610
Rome (rom), 494 ff., 500; taken

by Gauls, 513; rivalry of, with

Carthage, 518, 520 ff.
Rom'u lus and Re'mus, 484
Romulus Augustulus {% gus'tu lus),

695
Rosetta (r5 zet'ta) Stone, 97 f.,

193' 454 f.
Royal tombs of Egypt, 94 f .

Sal'amis, 331 f., 371

Samnites (sam'nits), 514

Sa'mos, 298, 324

Sappho (saf'5), 309, 354

Sar din'i a, 535

Sar'dis, 322,,

Sar'gon of Ak'kad, 122 f.

Sargon II, 152

Sassanians (sasa'nianz), 675, 678

Saul (sal), 203

Index

741

Saxons (sak'snz), 694

Schliemann (shle'man), 245 ff.

Scipio (sip'i o), 544 ff.

Scopas (sko'pas), 406, 409

Scylax (siiaksj, 186 f.

Seleucids (se lu'sidz), 448

Seleucus (se lu'kus), 445 f., 448

Semites (sem'Its), loi f. ; traffic of,
103; religion of, 103 f.; art of,
123 f.; union of, with Sumerians,
1 26 f . ; struggle of, with Indo-
Europeans, 172 ff., 524 ff., 706 f.

Seneca (sen'e ka), 620 f., 654

Sennacherib (se nak'e rib), 1 52,
210, 212, 288

Sentrnum, 514 f., 543

Sep tim'i us Se ve'rus, 673, 675

Se ra'pis, 631

Se sos'tris, 80

Se'ti I, 94

Seven Wise Men, 320

Shadoof (sha dof), 36

Shal ma ne'zer III, 211

Shi'nar, Plain of, 105 f,

Sicilian (si sil'ian) expedition, 385 f.

Sicilian War, 533 ff.

Sicily (sisl li), Greek colonists in,
289 f.

Sinai (si'ni), 50, 59

Slavery, in Egypt, 67 ; in Greece,
298 ; in Rome, 566 ff., 669

Slavs (slavz), 706

Social War, 582

Socrates (sok'ra tez), 416 ff., 420 f.

Sol'o mon, 205 f.

So'lon, 303 ff., 342, 345, 355

Sophia (s5.fe'a), Saint, 688, 698

Sophists (sof'ists), 357 ff., 370, 372,

415
Sophocles (sof'oklez), 353, 371 ff.
Spain (span), 594
Spar'ta, 283, 307, 336 ff., 347 f.,

401 ; fall of, 402
Spartan leadership, 394 ff.
Spar'tan league, 307, 392
Sphinx (sfingks), 50
Stesichorus (ste sik'o rus), 309 f.
Stilicho (stiriko), 692 f.
Stoicism (sto'i sizm), 478 f.
Stone Age, Early, 5 ff. ; Late, 14 ff.,

221 f.; Middle, 9 ff.; in Egypt,

38 ; in Italy, 488

Stonehenge (ston'henj), 30
Stra'bo, 613, 661
Sudan (so dan'), 59
Sulla (sura), 425, 582 ff.
Summer, 108

Su me'ri an agriculture, 108
Sumerian art, 118
Sumerian calendar, in
Sumerian houses, ii4f.
Sumerian religion, 112 f.
Sumerian society, 119
Sumerian writing, 109 ff.
Sumerians, 107 ff. ; union of, with

Semites, 1 26 f.
Susa (so'sa), 189, 437
Swiss lake-villages, 20 f .
Syracuse (sir'a kas), 289 f., 344,

385
Syria (sir'i a), 448, 585, 643

Tacitus "(tas'i tus), 654
Taren'tum, 517, 522 f.
Tasmanians (taz ma'ni anz), 2 f.
Terence (terpens), 562
Tetricus (tet'ri kns), 676
Teutons (tu'tonz), 579
Thales (tha'lez), 316, 318
Theater, Greek, 310
Thebes (thebz), in Egypt, 80, 86 f.,

92,94, 375
Thebes, in Greece, 284, 402 ff.,

429
Themistocles (the mis'to klez),

328 ff., 338 f., 341
Theocritus (the ok'ri tus), 475, 616
Theodoric (the od'o rik), 695
Theodosius (the 9 do'shi us), 684,

692, 697; Edict of, 700
Thermopylae (thermop'ile),329ff.
Theseus (the'sus), 367
Thucydides (thu sid'i dez), 419,

615
Thrie, 471
Thutmose (thotmO'se) III, 84 f.,

684
T! be'ri us, emperor, 617 f.
•Tiberius Gracchus (grak'us), 576 f.
Tibullus (ti bul'us), 659
Tigranes (tigra'ngz), 585
Ti mo'the os, 474
Tiryns (trrinz), 237, 247 f.
Ti'tus, 627

742

Ancient Times

Tombs of the Egyptian kings, 94 f .
Tours (tor), 711
Tower of Babel, 1 1 2
Towns, earliest, 26 f.
Tra'jan, 627 ff., 634 ff., 650 f.
Trasimene (tras'i men). Lake, 539
Tri bo'ni an, 697
Tribunes (trib'unz), 505
Triumvirate (tri um'vi rat), 587
Troy (troi), 239, 245 ff., 429
Turks, 713

Tyrants, Age of, 301 ff.; civiliza-
tion of, 307 ff., 320
Tyre (tir), 434

Ul'fi las, 691

University, of Alexandria, 477; of

Athens, 479 ; of Rome, 642
Ur (er), 126

Valens (va'lenz), 692
Vandals (van'd^lz), 691, 693
Ve'nus, 502

Vespasian (ves pa'zhian), 609,
625 f.

Ves'ta, 502

Virgil' (ver'jil), 616, 702

Visigoths (viz'i goths), 692

Wedge-form writing, 1 10 f., 189 f.,

242
West Goths, 692
Women, position of, in Greece,

353 f-
Writing, phonetic, 41 ff.; pictorial,

40 ; invention of, 45
Writing materials, 43 f.

Xenophon (zen'o fpn), 399 ff., 422
Xerxes (zerk'sez), 187, 190, 328 ff,

Yahveh (ya va'), 206

Za'ma, 544 ff.
Ze'n5, 479
Ze n5'bi a, 676
Zeus (ztis), 277 ff.
Zeuxis (zuk'sis), 411
Zo ro as'ter, 177 ff., 675

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